Democratic Capitalism, Volume II
The Way to a World of Peace and Plenty
Ray Carey
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Preface
3
Chapter 1 The Ideal, the Means, and the Process
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Chapter 2 American Gridlock
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Chapter 3 Institutional Investors: Agents Of Change
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Chapter 4 Needed: New Philosophers For A New Age
97
Chapter 5 Conservatism, Collectivism or Liberalism
164
Chapter 6 Power Failures (Arrogance) and Process Failures (Ignorance)
189
Chapter 7 The Federal Reserve and The Crash of ‘29
216
Chapter 8 A Case Study in Bad Government: The Savings and Loan Disaster
228
Chapter 9 Citizen Education for a Successful Democracy
250
Chapter 10 ERISA
267
Chapter 11 Enlightenment Two
281
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Preface
The Human Mission
It is not possible to run the course aright, when the goal itself has not
Francis Bacon (1561-1626)1
been rightly placed.
The human goal is to reach full potential based on the worth of each individual harmonized in an
environment of trust and cooperation. Following these truths, common to natural law and
religion, society can put the conducive circumstances in place and remove the impediments.
From the beginning, most individuals were not free of needs for food, clothing, shelter, and good
health, nor were their minds freed by education to use reason. The urge towards freedom made
progress possible, but it was persistently impeded by those who used coercion and violence to
take a large share of the wealth.
Nations and religions contradicted the worth and potential of each individual and the
environment of harmony by killing hundreds of millions for either perceived economic benefit or
dogma.
Philosophers during the 18th and 19th centuries identified how economic freedom built up from
the worth and potential of each in an environment of trust and cooperation, could eliminate
material scarcity, distribute wealth broadly, and unite people in economic common purpose.
Conducive circumstances were available then, and the impediments of concentrated wealth and
violence among nations and people could be removed.
By the beginning of the 21st century the benefits of economic freedom and economic common
purpose had been empirically confirmed by improvement in the lives of hundreds of millions of
people. The impediments of concentrated wealth and violence among nations and people,
1
Francis Bacon, Novum Organum, (New York: The Modern Library, 1939) p. 56, aphorism # lxxxxi
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however, had not been removed.
The way to remove these impediments is clear, and the democratic power for reform is available.
Democratic Capitalism, The Way To a World of Peace and Plenty, volume 1 and this volume 2
are offered to new leaders as the democratic capitalist solution.
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Chapter 1
The Ideal, the Means, and the Process
God who hath given the world to men in common, hath also given them reason to
make use of it to the best advantage of life and convenience. 2
John Locke
(1632-1704)
From thirty years experience managing companies I knew that performance improved
dramatically when people were free to participate in an environment of trust and cooperation.
My confidence in the worth and potential of humans was not abstract theory, it was based on tens
of thousands of specific opportunities in many countries to observe people functioning well
when provided with the conducive circumstances.
During twenty years of study, I have found that the 18th century Enlightenment identified the
way to peace and plenty: economic freedom that could feed, clothe, shelter, educate, and provide
good health care and hope for all, and economic common purpose that could unite people and
stop the violence.
The Enlightenment offered this ideal of indefinite human progress, the means to attain the ideal,
and the process to specify the means and validate the ideal. For the next two centuries, economic
freedom and economic common purpose were successfully tested but were impeded by
concentrated wealth and violence. The intellectual community had failed to follow the
Enlightenment’s truth-seeking process, failed to examine the specific means, failed to harmonize
capitalism and democracy, and many even abandoned idealism. The folly and bloodshed that had
dominated human history continued.
Late in the 20th century, more countries were adopting economic freedom and freed hundreds of
2
John Locke, Concerning Civil Government, The English Philosophers from Bacon to Mill, (New York: Modern
Library, 1967, first published, 1690) p. 413
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millions of humans from extreme poverty. America, however, failed to lead the world in
economic common purpose. Instead, ignorant and arrogant politicians tried to dominate the
world based on nuclear bomb superiority. As a result, early in the 21st century, one-third of the
world still lives in misery, the rest in violence, or fear of violence.
A rededication to the original mission of the Enlightenment can reposition America to lead
towards economic common purpose and away from violence. An Enlightenment II can replicate
the rigorous truth seeking that works so well in the sciences. Fragmented, specialized knowledge
can again be integrated to improve the human condition. Information age technology can
expedite a worldwide examination of hypotheses that debates, accepts, rejects, or refines to way
to peace and plenty.
The first building block is the hypothesis that social progress begins by movement to the superior
economic system. Validation of this premise is critical to releasing the energy and intelligence of
millions of potential reformers. Once validated, the examination can proceed to specific
propositions such as these:

Problem: Capitalism depends on the discipline to invest for future gain instead of
present consumption. Trillions of dollars of pension savings have gone into
consumption by the financial capitalists, instead of into job-growth investment.
Solution: Tax-free dividends for low-and-middle-income wage earners, a “capital
wage” to be spent or reinvested. Hundreds of billions of dollars a year will be
returned to the economy instead of wasted on stock buy backs and non-strategic
acquisitions. This democratization of capitalism would encourage the spread of profit
sharing and ownership plans; it would add income for the reciprocal purchases upon
which free trade depends; and it would motivate wage earners to create more wealth.

Problem: Speculators with borrowed money have caused asset inflation in stocks
and real estate resulting in recessions that devastate the livelihood of ordinary people,
after making the rich richer.
Solution: Government accepts responsibility for prevention of asset inflation, as well
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as price inflation, and controls it by taxes, bank reserves, stock margin reserves, and
interest expense.

Problem: Institutional investors use quarterly earnings per share to pressure
companies to abandon long-term building plans for the sake of short-term earnings.
Solution: Institutional investors honor their fiduciary responsibility to maximize the
long-term retirement benefits of their customers, the wage earners, by changing the
measurement of company performance from quarterly earnings-per-share to a threeyear running average of sales, profits, and cash flow against predictions.
These simple reforms will put the world on the way to peace and plenty. Broad distribution of
wealth at home will increase economic growth and change the relationship between capitalism
and democracy from the traditional tension to harmony. With the reaffirmation of the American
dream, the people will demand that their government give priority to economic common
purpose, not military might, in the relations with other nations and cultures.
Young people everywhere will view the good life on the Internet, and powered by the innate
urge towards freedom, they will pressure their governments to move to the benefits of economic
freedom. Within a generation, improvement in the lives of people from a fundamentally moral
system will spread to all parts of the world. Each generation will recognize the inevitability of
peace and plenty and build on this momentum.
Nature has set no limits to the realization of our hopes.3 Condorcet,( 1743-1794).
Condorcet’s optimism for social progress was based on how well his associates within the 18th
century Enlightenment had integrated knowledge to improve the human condition. Since then,
experience in many countries has verified that the way to plenty is economic freedom, and the
way to peace is economic common purpose. Much of the world, however, is still full of misery
and violence. Two billion humans try to live on $2 a day; 160 million humans were killed by
3Edward
Goodell, The Noble Philosopher, Condorcet and the Enlightenment, including an excerpt from
Condorcet’s Sketch for a Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human Mind, ( Buffalo, New York: Prometheus
Books, 1994), p.227
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governments during the 20th century; early in the 21st century, the violence has spread to cultures
in which suicidal delivery of terrible weapons is celebrated.
Society should be embarrassed by this unnecessary failure. Violence always trumps reason in the
short term, unless determination by nations and the structure of law are there to contain it.
Economic freedom now functions at a fraction of potential because wealth is not broadly
distributed, and economic common purpose does not unite the world because the priority is still
military power. These impediments, in turn, are caused by mistakes by poorly trained leaders and
lack of reform by poorly educated citizens.
The mission of the 18th-century Enlightenment was to find the optimum organization in human
affairs by replicating in the social sciences the truth seeking that worked well in natural sciences.
Their legacy is the ideal, the means, and the process to specify the means and validate the ideal.
Although they provided the educational materials, the impediments continue, not for lack of
solutions, but for lack of study.
This integration of knowledge, the Enlightenment way to a world of peace and plenty, was
summarized by the Marquis de Condorcet (Marie-Jean-Antoine-Nicolas-Caritat), in his tenth
stage of his Sketch for a Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human Mind.4 Like most of
the Enlightenment, Condorcet’s truth-seeking discipline was developed as a scientist, he was a
mathematician. Condorcet finished this extraordinary document while he was in hiding; shortly
thereafter, he died in prison during the Reign of Terror.
Condorcet, the last of the French philosophes, was a protégé of Voltaire (Francois Marie Arouet
1694-1778), the first of the philosophes, who was banished to England early in the century for
writing what he thought. A few years later, Voltaire brought back to France his appreciation of
English Constitutional freedoms, Issac Newton’s (1642-1727) scientific discovery of order in the
universe, Francis Bacon’s protocols to transfer scientific truth-seeking methods to the
organization of human affairs; and John Locke’s affirmation of the inalienable rights of each
individual, and government by the consent of the governed. Voltaire integrated the contributions
4
Goodell, op.cit.
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of these 17th-century thinkers to help free the mind. Later, Adam Smith, (1723-1790),
Condorcet’s friend, described in his Wealth of Nations.5 how to free of body of material needs
The way to peace and plenty was now clear, but the impediments of concentrated wealth and
violence among nations had powerful momentum. Condorcet realised that the best hope to test
and verify the way was in the new republic, America:
That happy land where freedom had only recently kindled the torch of genius, the
mind of man released from the leading-strings of its infancy, advances with firm
steps towards the truth.6
Thomas Paine (1737-1809), revolutionary free-thinker, examined the human march towards
freedom in England, America and France, and called the democratic experiment in America a
new beginning of history. He was typical of these public intellectuals who knew no borders.
While their nations were at war, or preparing for war, they collaborated on ways to improve the
human condition. Professor Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), for example, contributed thoughts on
perpetual peace from Prussia, while Americans in Paris, Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) and
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), developed thoughts on structuring their new government.
Condorcet described his friend Franklin as “a man who believed in the power of reason, and the
reality of virtue.”7 Condorcet’s wife Sophie helped by translating both Smith’s first book, The
Theory of Moral Sentiments, as well as Paine’s speeches to the French assembly.
Condorcet’s classical liberal manifesto
Drawing on the wisdom of many thinkers from many countries, Condorcet offered this
manifesto:
Free trade, freedom of speech, freedom of press, the end of censorship, the end of
slavery, the enfranchisement of women, universal free education, equality before
the law, the separation of state and church, religious toleration, the adoption of a
5
Adam Smith, An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, (New York: Modern Library, 1937,
first published in London, 1776)
6Goodell op cit. p. 227
7 Walther Isaacson, Benjamin Franklin, (New York: Simon& Schuster, 2003), p.338
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written constitution with a written declaration of the rights of people embedded in
the constitution to insure the recognition of those rights, the establishment of a
representative or parliamentary form of national government, and local selfgovernment to encourage the independence and the participation of the peasants
in government.8
These words could have been written by Thomas Jefferson so closely do they reflect the
American Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights. In the rest of the world
these freedoms were a hope, in America they energized and united people in an ethos in which
each generation expected to pass on a better life to their children, and they did.
Condorcet on concentrated wealth
Condorcet’s summary was not only about the liberal ideal but also specified the means to
neutralize the first impediment: concentrated wealth:
Any disproportion of wealth could not exist if civil laws did not provide artificial
ways of perpetuating fortunes; if free trade and industry were allowed to remove
the advantages that accrued wealth derives from any restrictive law or fiscal
privilege…if the administration of the country did not afford some men ways of
making their fortune that were closed to other citizens.9
We shall reveal other methods of insuring equality either by seeing that credit is no
longer the exclusive privilege of great wealth, or by making industrial progress more
independent of the great capitalists.10
This volume 2 describes how trillions of mandated pension dollars should have made “industrial
progress independent of the great capitalists” as Condorcet expressed it, but most of the wage
earners’ capital is not being converted into job-growth investment.
8
Goodell, op.cit, p. 162.
9
Ibid., p 231
Ibid., p.233
10
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The Enlightenment thinkers knew that broad distribution of wealth was not merely a matter of
fairness but was a key component of Smith’s economic dynamic that provided the spendable
income to those whose purchases had the maximum multiplier effect. The added volume would
then drive down costs and prices, allowing others to purchase, thereby adding more volume
sustaining the economic perpetual motion machine. Smith extended this concept to globalization,
or free trade, with conditions that would make it a universal benefit. Besides broad distribution
of wealth, the conditions included peace, money that was merely a medium of exchange without
influence on the commercial process, and control of the speculators, prodigals and projectors, as
Smith called them.
Condorcet on war and violence among nations and people
Condorcet knew that Smith’s first condition for the success of free markets was peace, and he
sensed that only economic common purpose could purge the violence that had dominated human
history. Condorcet commented on this second impediment:
Gradually mercantile prejudices will fade away, and a false sense of commercial
interest will lose the fearful power it once had of drenching the earth in blood and
of ruining nations under pretext of enriching them. When at last the nations come
to agree on the principles of politics and morality, when in their own better
interests they invite foreigners to share equally in all the benefits men enjoy either
through the bounty of nature or by their own industry, then all the causes that
produce and perpetuate national animosities and poison nations’ relations will
disappear one by one; and nothing will remain to encourage or even to arouse the
fury of war.11
Kant also knew that freedom cannot be functional without discipline, and so he offered in his
“Eighth Thesis” the need for organization prerequisite to substituting law for violence:
A perfectly constituted State is the only condition in which the capacities of
mankind can be fully developed, and also bring forth that external relation among
11
Ibid., p. 244
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States which is perfectly adequate for this end.12 This would force the States to
the same decision (hard though it may be hard for them) that savage man was also
reluctantly forced to take, namely, to give up brutish freedom and to seek quiet
and security under a lawful constitution.13
Condorcet anticipated a United Nations type of organization:
Organizations more intelligently conceived than those projects of eternal peace
which have filled the leisure and consoled the hearts of certain philosophers, will
hasten the progress of the brotherhood of nations, and wars between countries
will rank with assassinations as freakish atrocities, humiliating and vile in the
eyes of nature and staining with indelible opprobrium the country or the age
whose annals record them.14
What a wonderful vision! Two centuries later France and Germany, agreed to stop drenching
their earth with the blood of each generation of young men, and formed the European Union.
Condorcet’s optimism, however, is difficult to reconcile with the bloodiest, most violent century
in human history, the twentieth; and with the continuation of this violence into the new century
marked by September 11, 2001. How can the world in the grip of reciprocal atrocities unite in
economic common purpose? Condorcet answered this question over two centuries ago: Only by
actualizing an inversion, in which the standard of living throughout the world goes up, and
violence goes down.
Tension between democracy and capitalism in the new American republic
From the beginning in America, the democratic political system and the capitalist economic
system were in tension. Millions of lives were improved, verifying the power of economic
freedom, but the system functioned at a fraction of potential. Wealth became concentrated from
the start by way of non-democratic privileges granted to the financial oligarchy. Despite George
12
Immanuel Kant, Selections, Idea for a Universal History from a Cosmopolitan Point of View and Perpetual
Peace, (New York: Scribner/MacMillan, 1998) p. 422
13 Ibid., p, 420
14
Goodell, op cit p. 244.
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Washington’s warnings, the nation was, moreover, unable to avoid the violence of European
nations and, in time, copied their imperialism and priority for military power.
Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804), Secretary of Treasury in Washington’s first administration,
built the country’s structure without which we probably would not have survived. “ He knew that
the European powers raised foreign loans in wartime and this inextricable linkage between
military and financial strength informed all of his subsequent thinking.”15
With this mind set, Hamilton corrupted the democratic ideal of a country reflecting the wisdom
of the people, and he corrupted the economic system by providing privileges for the wealthy and
powerful. This hard working genius structured fiscal and monetary policies consistent with his
elitist philosophy:
All communities divide themselves into the few and the many. The first are rich
and wellborn, the other the mass of the people. The people are turbulent and
changing, they seldom judge or determine right. Give, therefore, to the first class
a distinct, permanent share in the government. They will check the unsteadiness
of the second, and as they cannot receive any advantage by a change, they will
ever maintain good government.16
Government requires the deliberate wisdom of a select assembly and cannot be safely lodged
with the people at large.” 17
From the beginning, speculation with borrowed money was allowed in contradiction to the
government’s obligation to control currency and credit for the general welfare. Protection against
asset inflation was never accepted as a government responsibility, and, as a result, after the War
of 1812 the country went into its first boom/bust cycle in stocks and real estate in which the rich
get richer until the poor get poorer. The resulting panic of 1818 bankrupted farmers, put one-half
million of the new urban workers out of work, and imprisoned thousands for inability to pay
small debts. Since then the government goes to extremes to prevent price inflation that erodes the
15
Ron Chernow, Alexander Hamilton, (New York: Penguin Press, 2004) p.138.
Alexander Hamilton’s speech at the 1787 Constitutional Convention, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
17 Ibid., p. 90.
16
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asset value of the wealthy, but refuses to prevent asset inflation that has done more harm to more
people. From Hamilton to Alan Greenspan, recent head of the Federal Reserve Board, the
government has demonstrated that it does not regulate the finance capitalists, who handle the
money, it protects them!
Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State in the same first administration as Hamilton, recognized
that the new democratic experiment was being profoundly corrupted by policies that would
“enrich swindlers at the expense of the honest and industrious.”18 Later, as President, Jefferson
instructed his Secretary of Treasury, Albert Gallatin: “It is the greatest duty we owe to the safety
of our Constitution to bring this powerful enemy to a perfect subordination.”19 Jefferson failed
to get control of the finance capitalists and presidents have failed since because concentrated
wealth resulting from lobbied privileges means more riches for the politicians. The people sensed
that currency and credit were being controlled for the speculators, not the general welfare, but
lacked the financial sophistication to specify reform, then and now.
Jefferson’s frustration and Hamilton’s determination were major causes of the destructive twoparty political system. Instead of a system in which candidates compete on how to implement an
agreed agenda, America quickly adopted an adversarial and acrimonious system that represents
two fundamentally opposite views of government: the Jeffersonian democratic ideal of
government , “by the people,” and the Hamiltonian republican idea of government, “by the
wealthy and powerful few.” Jefferson conditioned his optimism on universal, high-quality
education and the belief that the people would get it right in time. Hamilton’s government by an
elite copied the same error-prone government of monarchs and tyrants that had made European
history a bloody failure.
The political debate should be about the best way to build and distribute wealth, and the best way
to lead the world to the benefits of economic freedom to stop the violence. Fast forward to the
election of 2006 in which the people rejected an imperial president and his small group of
fascists. This rejection by the voters was critical, but the political debate was not about
18
Charles Sellers, The Market Revolution, Jacksonian America, 1815-1846, (New York: Oxford University Press,
1991), p.46
19 Ibid., p. 62
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America’s proper role in the world, nor was it about government privileges that concentrated
wealth in record amounts. The 2006 debate was, instead, about minimum wages, stem cell
research, abortion, and health benefits—all of which are important subjects, but none of which
addresses America’s role as world leader towards economic freedom that can eliminate material
scarcity, and economic common purpose that can stop the violence.
Marx’s contributions
In the middle of the 19th century Karl Marx (1818-1883) confirmed that capitalism had the
productive capacity to eliminate material scarcity but was functioning at a fraction of potential
because of concentrated wealth, one of the two impediments to human progress.
Marx, the atheist, found common cause with religion in the celebration of the worth and potential
of each individual: “ The free development of each is the condition for the free development of
all.”20 This is one of two moral principles common to secular humanists and religions necessary
to support human progress.
Marx also found common cause with religion in the environment of trust and cooperation that
displaced alienation. This workplace culture of brotherly love is the second of two common
moral principles.
Marx identified the way to eliminate the first impediment of concentrated wealth by the workers
participating in ownership. Wealth was thus broadly distributed while the workers were
motivated to produce more wealth.
Marx identified the way to eliminate the second impediment of violence among nations and
people. He saw the benefits from this new mode of production spreading worldwide in a benign
inversion in which the standard of living would go up and the violence would go down.
According to Marx, in time, the Warrior State would become irrelevant and disappear.
Marx understood why the intellectual community had failed to assimilate Adam Smith’s vision
of an end to material scarcity, they were wedded to political solutions and culturally conditioned
20
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto, (New York: Penguin Books, 1967, first printed in
1848) p. 105
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to reject economic solutions. Marx pointed them in the right direction: begin with the superior
economic system.
The intellectual community after Marx compounded their error by adopting his critique of
generic capitalism while ignoring his advice on where to start. The Marxists built tyrannical
political structures in his name, did not change the work culture, and added to the violence. This
intellectual myopia has precluded reform for a century-and-a-half since and is the prime reason
that democracy and capitalism are still in tension and the world is still full of folly and violence.
Mill avoided the Marxists fatal flaws and completed the definition of democratic capitalism.
John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) endorsed the power of capitalism to eliminate material scarcity but
avoided the fatal structural flaws of the Marxists by integrating Marx’s contributions with
competition, private property, and skilled management thus completing the definition of
democratic capitalism..
Mill saw the synergistic opportunities in capitalism and democracy raising the standard of living,
elevating the spirits, and uniting people in a moral system:
It is scarcely possible to rate too highly this material benefit, which yet is nothing
compared to the moral revolution in society that would accompany it.”21.
The tension would be gone and capitalism and democracy in harmony.
The way to a world of peace and plenty was now clear and complete. It was an economic system
that could eliminate material scarcity in the world and be a source of civic morality. The worth of
each individual and their opportunity to reach full potential did not rely on an after life, but was a
pragmatic secular opportunity. The culture of trust and cooperation was not some utopian dream
but the hard-headed way to maximize commercial results, and the same time the way to improve
performance in any human association from the family to the world.
Gridlock
21
John Stuart Mill, Principles of Political Economy, with Some of Their Applications to Social Philosophy,
(Fairfield, new Jersey: Augustus M. Kelley, 1987, first published in London, 1848), p.789
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Early in the 21st century, the impediments are worse with wealth concentrated in record amounts
and America trying to dominate the world. Democracy and capitalism are both corrupted because
the lobby power of the financial oligarchy has produced a deeply flawed economic system, while
the coupling of the military and fascists in government has moved America’s reputation in the
world from most admired to most hated. The country’s direction is not that of the people, and
the threat grows that, for the first time, a better world will not be passed to the next generation.
Many blame the state of the world on inexorable social forces, the inevitability of war, or
“human nature” as though there is something “natural” about getting killed or maimed because
of politicians’ errors. It should be simple: two moral principles to be observed- the worth of each
individual and the environment of trust and cooperation; two conducive circumstances to be put
in place-economic freedom and economic common purpose; and two impediments to be
removed-concentrated wealth and violence among nations and people. The world becomes
chaotic and impossible to manage because of the mistakes by leaders who do not understand that
democracy works only by listening to the people, and capitalism works only when free market
principles are not suspended.
America has abandoned its leadership towards freedom because of gridlock in these critical
areas:

Political gridlock: Instead of debating how we could reform the economic system to
build more wealth and distribute it broadly, our polarized and superficial political
parties debate more benefits from an already insolvent government. Instead of
debating how to lead the world in economic common purpose, our political parties
debate how to extricate ourselves from the results of previous errors.

Intellectual gridlock: Famous professors cannot agree on the integration of
knowledge to improve the human condition. Harvard professor John Rawls dismissed
the Enlightenment mission of a comprehensive, philosophical doctrine founded on
reason commenting that his political liberalism, “has no such ambitions.”22 Harvard
professor Edward Wilson has said that the Enlightenment got it mostly right and that
22
John Rawls, Political Liberalism, (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993), p.xviii
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the culture war should be ended by treating the boundary between science and the
humanities as unexplored terrain needing cooperative entry from both directions.23

Educational gridlock: Famous educators cannot agree on the public responsibility of
higher education. Derek Bok, former and interim president of Harvard, bemoans that
in twenty years: “ I cannot recall a single serious faculty discussion of how
undergraduate education could do a better job of preparing students as citizens. The
results of that neglect are all too visible.”24 Stanley Fish, distinguished educator and
former Dean of Chicago University, wrote a New York Times editorial: “The task of
educating students to be better citizens would deform (by replacing) the true task of
academic work: the search for truth.”25

Philosophical gridlock: A Time magazine cover raised again the old question: “God
vs Science.”26 Why fight? Those with the mission of integrating knowledge to
improve the human condition are interested in common rules that support human
progress. The first is the worth and potential of each individual celebrated in religion,
endorsed by Atheist Marx, and the moral foundation of democratic capitalism. The
second is that performance improves in every human association in an environment of
trust and cooperation. Benevolence, brotherly love, and a sense of unity are taught by
religion, but thousands of companies succeed in the market place because their people
function best in this culture.
A logic trail on the way to peace and plenty.
In Democratic Capitalism, volume 1, I offer for examination ten hypotheses that integrate the
wisdom of the Enlightenment, the visions of Marx, the refinements by Mill, and the experimental
verification from subsequent experience. From these sources, the way to peace and plenty
becomes clear. If the 18th century Enlightenment illuminated the way that subsequent generations
23
Edward O. Wilson, Consilience. The Unity of Knowledge, (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998), p. 126
Derek Bok, President Emeritus, Harvard University, Principal Address at the College of the Holy Cross,
Worcester Mass. Reported in the Holy Cross Crossroads, September/October 1993. pp. 8, 9
25 Stanley Fish, “Why We Built the Ivory Tower.” New York Times, May 21, 2004, p .A 23
26 November 13, 2006
24
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failed to follow, then there must be a persistent failure of the truth-seeking process. That is the
mission of Enlightenment II: A rededication to the process, and examination of the specific
means. I predict that this examination will reaffirm the ideal, which is the American ethos: “Life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness’ for all, and rediscover the specific means of economic
freedom, and economic common purpose to reach the ideal.
To expedite a beginning to this examination I offer ten hypotheses that identify potential agents
of change and their action agenda. The first five hypotheses are examined in volume one, the
second five are more fully examined in this second volume.
Hypotheses:
# 1- Social progress is based on movement to the superior economic system. This starting point
has yet to be assimilated by the intellectual community and this failure is the root cause of a
world still full of misery and violence.
# 2- Democratic capitalism is the superior political-economic system. It motivates and rewards
each to maximize broadly distributed wealth in an environment of trust and cooperation.
# 3-Economic freedom is a potentially universal system because it can improve lives in both
authoritarian and democratic countries
# 4- Ultra-capitalism treats the wage earner as a disposable cost commodity and finance
capitalism is dominant over, not supportive of, the job-growth economy. These perversions of
free markets principles concentrate wealth and prevent unity through economic common
purpose.
# 5- From the beginning the American banking system has limited the capacity of economic
freedom to spread wealth and has caused recessions and depressions.
# 6- Political, economic, educational, and philosophical gridlock in America must be broken to
open the way to peace and plenty
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# 7- The quality of truth seeking must be improved by following the process of the 18th century
Enlightenment.
# 8-A democratic republic can reflect the views of citizens only if universities educate them to
understand their responsibilities.
# 9- Money managers’ fiduciary responsibility to maximize the wage earners’ retirement savings
must change both company practice and government policies from short term and greedy to long
term and patient.
# 10-After the American government is reformed in support of democratic capitalism, a world
united in economic common purpose, free of want, fear, violence, and oppression, will become a
pragmatic opportunity during the 21st century. The United Nations can then encourage national
competitions in how well countries are improving the lives of their people measured by the U N
Human Development Index.
America failed spectacularly to lead the world towards peace and plenty
At the end of the Cold War, America had a special opportunity to lead the world to peace and
plenty. Countries from Eastern Europe to Asia were improving their economies and the lives of
their people. China and India freed 500 million people from extreme poverty in a decade through
economic freedom. Countries were regarding each other as commercial partners, not national
enemies. China toured the world making commercial arrangements with the message: “Let’s get
rich together!” The Information Age work culture needed participation in an environment of trust
and cooperation as a competitive necessity. The Information Age also added productivity and
communication opportunities to further unify the world. In America, mandated pension savings
was a unique opportunity to meld the interests of capital and labor in a post-capitalist society.
Democracy and capitalism could come into harmony and the world could benefit from strong,
steady, economic growth that would leave no families behind.
America blew these opportunities. The capital flow from mandated pension funding did not
produce the post-capitalist society because finance capitalists, the people who make money on
money, the people who had traditionally exploited the wage earners’ labor, now learned how to
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exploit the wage earners’ capital. American leaders lost not only prosperity at home, but also
peace abroad because they did not listen to the people on its proper role in the world and went
from team player to bully on the block. A few American fascists were determined to provoke
enemies in order to rationalize the over one-half trillion dollars a year military budget. America
stalked the world with the threat: “Do it our way, or else!” Finance capitalists lobbied their way
into an economic system that concentrates wealth in obscene amounts; America fascists fumbled
their way into an impossible war while becoming the world’s most hated nation.
Try again, America!
America, now, must search and find its roots to determine what economic system it will support
and what foreign policy it will follow. The two are interdependent: Democratic capitalism
maximizes wealth, and it does so in a moral environment that elevates and unites people. It can
distribute wealth broadly at home and add income for reciprocal purchases to make free trade a
universal benefit abroad. This coupling of material and moral benefits will reaffirm idealism in
America, and eventually in the world.
The time for reform is getting short and will depend on the intellectual community doing their
homework and finally getting the starting point right. It should not be that hard to find, Marx’s
pointed it out. From this examination, it will be clear that economic freedom can provide food,
clothing, shelter, education, good health care and hope for the world, and that economic common
purpose can unite all people. Young people in Muslim cultures will view the good life on
Information Age technology, and they will become a force for freedom in their own countries. It
may take a generation, but the innate urge towards freedom cannot be denied. George Wilhelm
Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) saw this Geist, or spirit, moving the whole towards perfection:
The nature of spirit may be understood by a glance at its direct opposite-matter. As the essence
of matter is gravity, so on the other hand we may affirm the essence, the subject of spirit, is
freedom.27
Three German idealists in succession added their wisdom for the benefit of the Enlightenment
27
G.W. F. Hegel, Introduction to the Philosophy of History, (New York: Modern Library, 1960). P. 559
- 21 -
and humanity. First, Kant outlined the necessity to discipline freedom with law for perpetual
peace. Next, Hegel saw the human urge to freedom moving the whole to higher levels through
struggle and contradiction. Then, Marx found that the essential step for human progress was
movement to the superior economic system, assimilated by the culture, with the political
structure modified in its support. Over two millennia earlier, another wise man, Confucius said:
“To attack a task from the wrong end can do nothing but harm.”28 It is time to start at the right
end.
28
Confucius, The Analects, (London: Penguin Books, 1979) Book II, # 16, p.65
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Chapter 2
American Gridlock
Hypothesis # 6: America is in an intellectual and political gridlock between those who
support ultra-capitalism and those who are trying to use government to redistribute
wealth. This gridlock prevents urgently needed reform of monetary, fiscal, and regulatory
policies.29
Since the beginning of the American republic, the financial oligarchy has held both economic
and political power. During the 20th century, the “Liberal” Democrats (collectivists) challenged
this concentration of wealth and influence with growing democratic power promoting a poorly
designed agenda to help people, and raised the percentage of the nation’s annual production
(GDP) taken in all taxes from 3% to over 35%. They did not, however, reform the economic
system, they did not prevent ultra-capitalism from dominating, and they wasted much of the
money.
For over two centuries, America has fulfilled the liberal vision of social progress and individual
freedom. Passing on a better life for the next generation has been a proud part of this
environment of trust and cooperation. The future of this most successful experiment in human
history of a country “of, for, and by the people,” however, is threatened. Both political parties are
deeply flawed, and as a consequence the system is in gridlock. As long as the urgent need for
reform is ignored, America will go into long-term economic decline, at home, and will fail to
lead in economic common purpose abroad.
After the demise of communism, the world was ready to unite and get rid of the nuclear bombs
29
Ray Carey, Democratic Capitalism, The Way to a World of Peace and Plenty, (Indianapolis: AuthorHouse,
2004), p 462
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and other military waste. American leaders, failing to recognize this opportunity, led instead to
more concentrated wealth and more coercive imperialism. If America continues on this path it
will lose its economic superiority and will become irrelevant in world affairs. In the worst-case
scenario, it will try to sustain its position in the world by military power, and the folly and
violence will get worse.
How did the American Dream turn into this nightmare? Citizens allowed their country to drift
away from policies based on the “will and wisdom” of the people filtered through the
representative government of an “aristocracy of talent and virtue.” The economy is now
centrally planned according to the wishes of Wall Street, although history shows that every
country that allows finance capitalism to become dominant goes into irreversible decline30.
Imperialistic foreign policy is centrally planned by the military and American fascists, although
history shows that every country that aspires to Empire fails.31 Tragic mistakes are the inevitable
result confirming the views of American Founders who wanted to substitute the wisdom of
educated citizens for mistakes by an arrogant few. Instead of diffused economic and political
power, as intended by the majority of the Founders, concentrated wealth from government
privilege now corrupts capitalism, and the money is then used to corrupt democracy. American
citizens sense this failure. Usually about one-half vote and polls indicate that less than 18%
approve of the job Congress is doing. In the 2006 election, however, citizens said “enough” and
showed signs that they would take their country back.
Reform must begin with an understanding of the gridlock. Three economic-political systems
compete in America. The first two, ultra-capitalism and collectivism, are seriously flawed but
receive political and intellectual support, the first mostly from Republicans, the second from
Democrats. The third system, democratic capitalism, has demonstrated superior performance,
but receives little political or intellectual support. It survives on its economic and social logic
rediscovered by each generation of democratic capitalists. The democratic majority must break
the gridlock between the ultra-capitalists and collectivists by directing their political and money
30
Kevin Phillips, Boiling Point, Republicans, Democrats, and Decline of Middle-Class Prosperity, (New York:
Random House, 1993)
31 Chalmers Johnson, The Sorrows of Empire, Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic, (New York: Henry
Holt & Co. 2004)
- 24 -
management representatives to support of democratic capitalism.
Citizens’ Choice
Ultra-capitalism is the combination of market fundamentalism, mercantilism that treats the
worker as a disposable cost commodity, and finance capitalism that is dominant over, rather than
supportive of the job growth economy. Ultra-capitalism’s ideologues of the liberation of capital
markets proclaim laissez-faire philosophy at the same time that they contradict Adam Smith’s
conditions for the success of economic freedom. Ultra-capitalism lobbies government privileges
for subsidizes, tariffs, and speculation with borrowed money, thus controlling currency and
credit for the speculators instead of the general welfare. It takes credit for the wealth-creation
capacity of economic freedom but ignores the reasons that economic freedom currently functions
at a fraction of its potential. The work culture of ultra-capitalism is fear and intimidation; profits
are maximized by suppressing wages and benefits. Mal-distribution of wealth, always the chief
impediment of traditional capitalism, reached obscene levels during the last quarter century of
ultra-capitalism. Wage arbitrage moves companies from country to country seeking the lowest
labor cost and not providing the wage earner the spendable income for reciprocal purchases upon
which free trade depends.
Ultra-capitalism is opposed by the reform-minded intellectual community; receives criticism
from most of academia; and contributes to America’s negative international image. This
exploitive capitalism hasn’t changed for centuries, nor has its support for the Warrior State. The
two fatal flaws of ultra-capitalism are concentration of wealth at home and economic and
military imperialism abroad.
Collectivism, since Marx, has been regarded as the alternative to capitalism. Its economic theory
is to use government to control the inherent excesses of capitalism and to redistribute wealth. But
ill-informed collectivists neither address Adam Smith’s conditions for the success of economic
freedom, namely keeping money neutral and control of the speculators, nor do they examine the
refinements of Smith’s system by Marx and Mill, consequently over 70 years of collectivism in
America has been unable to reform capitalism. The fatal flaw of the collectivists is their
preoccupation with government redistribution of wealth instead of addressing the flaws in the
- 25 -
economic system. The opportunity to build a foreign policy on promotion of economic common
purpose is also lost.
During the 20th century, collectivism failed in their communist and socialist contracts to
distribute wealth. During the same time, American collectivists increased the percentage of
wealth taken by all levels of government in taxes by ten times. Money was wasted, and missions
usually not accomplished because central planning inhibits the creation of wealth by its inability
to assimilate complex, rapidly changing data, and it de-motivates people with its top-down
structure. Despite its failures, collectivism survives in a form described by liberal economistphilosopher F. A. Hayek:
Socialists increasingly recognized the incurable economic inefficiency of central
planning, collectivists then simply discovered that redistribution through taxation
and aimed financial benefits was an easier and quicker method of achieving their
ends.32
Describing Hayek as a “liberal” economic philosopher might confuse some as he is generally
regarded as a conservative supporter of free markets. Hayek is a liberal in the classic sense of a
believer in individual freedom, social progress, and reform. He matched his critique of
collectivism with this one of conservatism:
Conservatism, though a necessary element in any stable society, is not a social
program; in its paternalistic, nationalistic, and power-adoring tendencies it is often
closer to socialism than true liberalism, and with its traditionalistic, antiintellectual, and often mystical propensities it will never, except in short periods
of disillusionment, appeal to the young and all those who believe that some
changes are desirable if this world is to become a better place.33
32
Friedrich .August von Hayek, New Studies in Philosophy, Politics, Economics, and the History of Ideas,
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974) p. 300
33 F.A. Hayek, The Road to Serfdom, (.Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989, first published by Routledge
and Keegan, 1944), Preface to the 1956 edition, p. xxxvi.
- 26 -
The economic guru both of Maggie Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, Hayek provided clarity on the
pathologies of both collectivists and conservatives alike. Hayek understood that the function of
government is to support free markets by keeping money neutral, control of the speculators, and
no non-democratic privileges, in other words he understood the warnings provided in the 18th
century Enlightenment summarized by Condorcet. Hayek advocated the usefulness of many
other government functions, including the support of education and protection of the
environment, but suggested that these missions can usually be accomplished better through
financial incentives rather than punishing laws.
Collectivism has the support of the political left, reform-minded intellectuals, much of the
popular media, and it receives general approval in liberal arts academia. It, however, contradicts
Karl Marx who tied social progress to movement to a superior economic system; based his
economic system on the worth and potential of each individual; and predicted improvement in
wealth creation after the work culture was changed from alienation to cooperation. Marx
envisioned the world uniting in economic common purpose in which the standard of living
would go up, the violence would go down, and the Warrior State would disappear. These visions
of Marx are all contradicted by ultra-capitalism; they are honored in theory but contradicted in
practice in collectivism, while integrated in theory and practice in democratic capitalism.
Democratic capitalism is the economic system that maximizes the creation and distribution of
wealth through the participation of workers motivated by forms of ownership. The superior
wealth creation and distribution capabilities of democratic capitalism can feed, clothe, shelter,
educate and provide good health care for the world’s 6.4 fellow humans. Democratic capitalism
distinguishes between market activities to be determined “ in the natural course of things,” as
Smith expressed it, and the vital responsibilities of government to be determined in a rigorous
pragmatic way. The broad distribution of wealth in democratic capitalism has multiple benefits:
it motivates the wage earner to innovate and produce, it adds income for those whose purchases
trigger the multiplier effect, and whose reciprocal purchases make “globalization” a universal
benefit.
John Stuart Mill identified the synergy among material benefit, the quality of life, and a moral
environment in this democratic capitalist manifesto:
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The other mode in which cooperation tends still more efficaciously to increase the
productiveness of labor, consists in the vast stimulus given to productive energies,
by placing the laborers, as a mass, in a relation to their work which would make it
their principle and their interest—at present it is neither—to do the utmost,
instead of the least possible, in exchange for their remuneration. It is scarcely
possible to rate too highly this material benefit, which yet is nothing compared to
the moral revolution in society that would accompany it; a new sense of security
and independence in the laboring class; and the conversion of each human being’s
daily occupation into a school of the social sympathies and the practical
intelligence.34
These words, written in 1848-the same year Marx and Engels published their Communist
Manifesto- marks a significant date after which forms of ownership participation have
demonstrated superior performance but have not received the broad intellectual and political
support needed to become the universal economic system. Tax incentives were passed into law
in the early 1920s and again in the early 1970s when Senator Russell Long proposed and
Congress passed 15 laws favoring ESOPs.35 These initiatives were overwhelmed by the lobby
power of Wall Street whose privileges to concentrate wealth contradict the culture of worker
ownership. Motivation and rewards from ownership are a vital part of a long-term, patient,
democratic capitalism but fight for survival under short-term and greedy ultra-capitalism.
Despite the impediments, democratic capitalism has demonstrated such superior economic and
social logic that by late in the 20th century, over 25 million wage earners in America were
participating in some type of ownership, and millions in other countries became owners as their
countries privatized companies in their movement from tyranny to freedom. With the addition of
ownership represented by wage earners’ pension and 401 (k) savings America now has the much
announced “ownership society,” but the rewards are going to the handlers of the money, not the
owners, the wage earners.
34John
Stuart Mill, Principles of Political Economy, with Some of their Applications to Social Philosophy,
(Fairfield, New Jersey: Augustus M. Kelley, 1987), p.789.
35 Employee Stock Option Plans
- 28 -
Jeff Gates announced The Ownership Solution36 in his 1998 book. Politicians of both parties
provided testimonials, and one of the 20th century’s visionaries, Mikhail Gorbachev, former
Russian Premier and author of Perestroika, wrote this:
Worker ownership focuses on the central issues that have to be addressed if the
twenty-first century is to transcend the simplistic dilemma of capitalism versus
socialism and create a new, sustainable civilization.37
Coretta Scott King, widow of Martin Luther King, Jr saw the same bridge that Gorbachev and
politicians from both parties recognized:
Somewhere in between unbridled capitalism and the welfare state, there has to be
a more just and equitable economic system which provides genuine opportunities
for all citizens, while preserving incentives for investment.38
Mrs. King recommended examination of Gates’s “ownership solution” as “capitalism with a
human face.”
Democratic capitalism continues to grow and demonstrate its superior capacity to build and
distribute wealth, but it has been limited by the lack of assimilation by the intellectual
community, by lack of support by political parties, by lack of institutional investors’ honoring
their long-term fiduciary responsibility, by lack of visibility in education, and little visibility in
the popular media. It is offered neither to Liberal Arts students as the way to improve the human
condition, nor is it offered to Business School students as the way to manage for superior
performance.
A Matrix Examined
The following comparison of competing systems makes clear that society will not progress
through ultra-capitalism, the coupling of mercantilism and finance capitalism. It will not progress
36
Jeff Gates, The Ownership Solution, Towards a Shared Capitalism for the 21 st Century, (Reading Massachusetts:
Addison-Wesley Longmans, 1998)
37 Ibid., Book jacket
38 op.cit.
- 29 -
through well intentioned but misdirected collectivism, it will move towards full potential only
through the material and spiritual strengths of democratic capitalism:
Wealth creation:
Ultra-capitalism creates wealth through economic freedom but limits it in the work culture of
fear and intimidation and by diverting capital from investment in job growth to speculation and
consumption.
Collectivism limits the creation of wealth by legislating government intrusions in an attempt to
micromanage industry. These programs frequently encourage a dependency condition.
Collectivism fails to use its democratic power to reform capitalism in order to create more
wealth.
Democratic capitalism creates the greatest amount of wealth because it motivates and rewards
each to innovate and produce to their full potential in an environment of trust and cooperation.
Wealth distribution:
Ultra-capitalism believes in “trickle down” wealth distribution in the assumption that more
wealth for the wealthy will help all people. It successfully lobbies government privileges that
concentrate wealth. Insufficient spendable income limits the multiplier effect and reciprocal
purchases needed to make free trade work. The result of both effects is the mal-distribution of
wealth that, in turn, limits the creation of wealth.
Collectivism tries to redistribute wealth by government fiat, an inevitably inefficient approach
that also limits the amount to be distributed through waste. Concentration by collectivists on the
corruptions by ultra-capitalists diverts attention from the reforms that would create and distribute
more wealth.
Democratic Capitalism through profit-sharing and ownership participation produces and
distributes increased wealth, maximizes the multiplier effect at home, and adds income for
reciprocal purchases critical for free trade abroad.
- 30 -
Social contract
Ultra-capitalism disdains any social contract between industry and society other than the
mythical “trickle down” theory. Concentrated wealth in ultra-capitalism causes social tensions at
home and frequently violence abroad.
Collectivism believes in redistribution of wealth by government to help individuals and
compensate for the deficiencies of capitalism. Collectivism in all of its forms has had limited
success in improving lives and no success in stopping the violence, in fact, its communist threat
to ultra-capitalism resulted in more violence.
Democratic capitalism’s mission is to eliminate material scarcity in the world. Its capability to
do so has been verified many times in many countries. Its mission includes improving the
standard of living for all people as the only way to stop the violence.
Value system
Ultra-capitalism is individualistic, short-term, greedy, amoral at best, and frequently immoral.
The expression “greed is good” is more a belief than a joke.
Collectivism’s mission is moral, but in too many cases the political structure erected in its behalf
became tyrannical and immoral. Marx’s conversion of the work culture from alienation to
cooperation implied a new morality never attained. Collectivists assume responsibility to control
the effects of the immorality of capitalism with oversight and punishing laws rather than reform
to the moral capitalism.
Democratic capitalism depends on an environment of trust and cooperation to innovate and
produce to superior levels, therefore, democratic capitalism is moral at its core. As morality is
not divisible, the company’s dedication to integrity includes relations with customers,
employees, suppliers, and community. A concentration of democratic capitalist companies in an
area has demonstrated an improved morality in the contiguous community measured by a
reduction in crime and the cost of police protection.
Free trade
- 31 -
Ultra-capitalism lobbies both Congress and the World Trade Organization (WTO) for trading
advantages in protectionist tariffs for manufacturers, subsidies for farmers, and deregulation for
financial services. It has made globalization a target of protest because of practices that hurt
instead of helped developing countries.
Collectivism is ambiguous but still tends to believe that protectionist tariffs saves jobs. It takes no
position on the damage done to developing countries by the liberalization of capital markets
ideologues because much of it was done by Democrats in the Clinton administration.
Democratic capitalism believes that free trade is the way to peace and plenty but that the
transition is accomplished only by addressing all of the needs: education, infrastructure, rule of
law, lack of corruption, available capital at modest cost, technology, and trained leaders.
Democratic Capitalism upholds that the role of government in building an economy will change
as the development proceeds. For example, mature countries should not have tariffs or subsidize
farmers, but developing countries may need both for a time to allow industry and agriculture to
build the skills and volume to compete
Smith’s conditions
Ultra-capitalism successfully lobbies government to contradict Smith’s conditions. Money is not
neutral, it is excessively volatile and in excessive quantities that significantly affecting the
commercial process. The speculators are not controlled, rather, they are provided privileges to
speculate with borrowed money as much as ten times their own capital.
Collectivists are unaware of Smith’s conditions and consequently do not reform the economic
system.
Democratic capitalism knows that observing Smith’s conditions of neutral money and control of
the speculators, prodigals and projectors, as he called them, is key to building more wealth and
distributing it broadly. Capital is not diverted to speculation.
Marx’s vision
- 32 -
Ultra-capitalism does not build up from the worth and potential of each; does not change the
work culture from alienation to cooperation; does not position the superior economic system as
the starting point for social progress; and does not promote economic common purpose as the
alternative to Warrior State violence.
Collectivism does not integrate Marx’s visions into their agenda they only adopt his criticism of
generic capitalism. Their agenda is redistribution of wealth by government not the creation and
distribution of wealth by the superior economic system
Democratic capitalism integrates the useful aspects of Marx’s vision: it builds up from the
individual, it changes the work culture to trust and cooperation, it releases the innovation and
productivity by motivated and rewarded workers; it believes that the superior economic system,
democratic capitalism, can satisfy the material and spiritual needs of the world, and that
economic common purpose can stop the violence. The integration by John Stuart Mill of Marx’s
vision with private property, competition, and skilled management completed the definition of
democratic capitalism.
Globalization
Ultra-capitalism believes in the American empire, big military expenditures, economic
imperialism, and the inevitability of war and violence.
Collectivists are unclear about America’s position in the world and are intimidated by the
military.
Democratic capitalists believe that the world can unite in economic common purpose and stop
the violence. America’s role is as a strong team player helping developing countries improve the
lives of their people. Democratic capitalists believes that once the world is visibly improving
lives then America should lead in demilitarizing the world beginning with its enormous
inventory of nuclear weapons.
Academic perception
- 33 -
Ultra-capitalism is held in contempt by most of the Liberal Arts professors while the short-term
and greedy “American model” is celebrated in Business and Law Schools.
Collectivism is the political view of choice for the majority of professors but with little
examination of the economic alternatives.
Democratic capitalism, the synergistic coupling of democracy and capitalism, is not examined in
American education.
Philosophy
Ultra-capitalism is Hobbesian and non-democratic believing that people are murderous animals
requiring control by an all powerful state. Ultra-capitalists believe that might makes right and
that both commerce and geopolitics are zero-sum games, one wins, one loses.
Collectivism believes that a just society is possible only with a powerful state. It places more
emphasis on what the state can do for people than providing the circumstances for people to do
for themselves. Many collectivists are not true democrats in that they do not respect the wisdom
of the people.
Democratic capitalism believes in the fundamental goodness and wisdom of people with
industry and the state responsible for providing conducive circumstances. Democratic capitalism
is Kantian in the belief that “perpetual peace’ is possible. It believes that a rising standard of
living is the only way to steadily to reduce the violence and points to the European Union as an
example of economic common purpose stopping the violence.
Unions
Ultra-capitalism actively oppose them
Collectivists favor them.
Democratic capitalists are neutral. If the people want a union they may need one.
Productivity
- 34 -
Ultra-capitalism has passed on the productivity gains from the Information Age industries to the
highest paid not to the wage earners whose compensation has been stagnant or declining for
several decades.
Collectivism complains about the mal-distribution of wealth but does not recommend economic
reform.
Democratic capitalism first stimulates more productivity from motivated wage earners and then
shares if with them to sustain motivation while adding to aggregate demand for the benefit of
economic growth
Inflation
Ultra-capitalism supports aggressive action to prevent price inflation that erodes the asset value
of the wealthy and hurts the creditor class. It supports government officials who deny that the
government can prevent asset inflation in real estate and stocks that have caused recessions and
depressions and hurt millions of citizens.
Collectivism tries to add full employment to the Federal Reserve’s mission of price stability with
little success. It has no position on asset inflation.
Democratic capitalism ties compensation increases to productivity and consequently is not a
source of price inflation. Democratic capitalists know that asset inflation has been the cause of
depressions and recessions, and this is evidence that the government does not, in fact, control
currency and credit for the general welfare. Democratic capitalists would control asset inflation
by bank reserves, margin requirements, interest rates, and taxes and points to other central
bankers39 who recognize the economic threat from asset inflation.
Fiscal and monetary policies
Ultra-capitalism successfully lobbies tax cuts for the wealthy despite huge budget deficits. It
successfully lobbies for the excessive liquidity and easy credit for speculation. The Crash of ’29,
39
William R. White, “Is Price Stability Enough?” BIS (Bank for International Settlement, Basel, Switzerland)
Working Paper No 205, April 2006. Available at: www.bis.org/publ/work205.pdf
- 35 -
the Bubble Economy of the 1990s, LTCM, Enron and other scandals were all a result of the
governments’ failure to limit easy credit.
Collectivists instituted progressive taxation but do not take a position on excessive liquidity or
government protecting instead of regulating ultra-capitalism. The Democrats share responsibility
with the Republicans for the easy credit that has caused such human suffering.
Democratic capitalism proposes tax-free dividends for low-and-middle income wage earners that
would liberate the trillions of dollars of retirement savings held hostage by Wall Street. This
priority in the distribution of surplus by companies would add hundreds of billions of dollars a
year to aggregate demand both domestically and abroad. Democratic capitalists propose that
asset inflation, caused by speculators with borrowed money, be controlled. Democratic
capitalists believe that taxes that have been shifted from corporations and the wealthy to the
middle class should be shifted back.
Debt-savings
Ultra-capitalism allows the government to build up record debt and encourages an economy
based on record individual debt. America has a negative savings rate while China saves 40% of
their GDP.
Collectivism try to win elections by promising more benefits from an already insolvent country.
Democratic capitalism will add tax revenues from stronger and steadier economic growth. It
favors forced savings for medical, educational, and retirement needs from payroll deductions
(similar to Singapore’s policy) The money would be in the control of the individual but would be
invested in index funds at less than .15% annual cost, and in bonds used for environmental,
educational and other infrastructure needs. These investments would add to economic growth
and be coupled with deep cuts in military budgets.
If democratic capitalism is so superior, why do we not use it?
Why is democratic capitalism not the universal system in industry with its philosophy and
protocols emulated by government at every level? The answer is myopia by the intellectual
- 36 -
community who are culturally conditioned to reject commerce as vulgar and social progress
dependant on an economic solution as not worth consideration. This intellectual mind set first
prevented the assimilation of Adam Smith’s conditions for free markets to work, and later
prevented a synthesis of Smith, Marx and Mill which allowed exploitive capitalism to dominate
both governments and commerce. There was no reason for this it was the mistakes of a few
powerful people functioning in the confusion between ultra-capitalism and collectivism. Late in
the 20th century an exhausted society seemed ready to unite in economic common purpose but
the world’s most powerful nation did not recognize and respond to the opportunity.
The quality of civilization depends on the quality of knowledge; the quality of knowledge
depends on the quality of truth seeking, the quality of truth seeking depends on the quality of
education. This logic trail does not work, however, if knowledge is not integrated to improve the
human condition. Most of contemporary, non-scientific knowledge is fragmented and
specialized.
This lack of integration of knowledge for human betterment ignores the contributions of the 18th
century Enlightenment who pointed the way to a world of peace and plenty summarized by the
Marquis de Condorcet. Included in this extraordinary blueprint were specifics of Adam Smith’s
economic freedom that could eliminate material scarcity, the structure and philosophy of a
government of the people in the new Republic, America, and the proposed structure for perpetual
peace by Immanuel Kant. The Enlightenment provided not only the ideal of human progress, but
also, the means to attain the ideal, and the process, modeled after Newton and Bacon, to validate
the ideal and specify the means.
The political and financial establishment, however, were never motivated to understand Smith’s
conditions of neutral money and control of the speculators because most of them were enjoying
the privileges from speculation with borrowed money. The reformers from the beginning have
had a collectivist mind set and have offered government solutions instead of simply correcting
the system to observe Smith’s conditions. This has gone on for over two centuries and is the
basic cause of America now entering into decline. The solution has not changed, it is Smith’s
economic freedom, including conditions that can feed the world, and economic common purpose
that can unite the world and stop the violence.
- 37 -
Big mistakes- tragic consequences
In 2006, the folly and violence are getting worse. The intellectual community looks in all of the
wrong places for answers, and untrained leaders continue to make incredibly bad mistakes.
Human destiny in the 21st century is a quality control problem: do it right the first time, and stop
the mistakes!
Management of economic freedom at home and economic common purpose abroad is relatively
easy because decisions are decentralized, and management of change is comfortably within
human competence. Conversely, central management of the economy to concentrate wealth
causes social tensions and is by nature error prone, while efforts to centrally manage the world
by coercion and violence is chaotic and even more error prone. Management of change in
misadventures such as the Iraq war is beyond human competence.
If the American government had given priority to support of democratic capitalism at home and
economic common purpose abroad, none of the following mistakes would have happened. All
were violations of either democratic or economic principles, and if they had been avoided, the
world would be well on the way to peace and plenty.
1953, Iran: The Dulles brothers, John Foster, Secretary of State and Allen, head of the CIA in
Eisenhower’s new administration, sent Teddy’s grandson Kermit Roosevelt, to Iran with a big
bag of money to topple the democratically elected Mossadegh, a superbly educated nationalist
with a mission to bring Iran into modernity. Kermit succeeded.
Mossadegh had been honored by Time magazine as “man of the year,” calling him an “Iranian
George Washington.” He offered the British the same 50/50 split of oil profits that the
Americans had in Saudi Arabia; they refused; he nationalized the oil industry, and kicked the
Brits out. They then talked the Dulles brothers into a “regime change,” courtesy of the CIA,
based on phony Cold War claims of “communist threat” In a sham trial, Mossadegh was
indicted, convicted, imprisoned for three years, and lived out his life in house arrest. He said that
his crime was trying to free his country from colonial oppression.
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Today, Iranian students know of America’s role in replacing their democratic leader with the
imperial Shah, a puppet dictator. How many Americans know of this history and relate it to the
present “Iranian threat?” Popular media articles on Iran start their current history with the taking
of American hostages in 1978, not with America sneaking into Iran in 1953 to bribe enough
rioters to dump their democratically elected leader.
Until this immoral, hypocritical violation of democratic principles, national sovereignty, and
human rights, America was the only Western power that had not invaded the Middle East. The
USA was positioned to partner with Iran and others in economic development. Instead, these
actions initiated by a few arrogant and ignorant men put America on a violent course in the
Middle East that is still gaining momentum.
1950-1973, Vietnam: All of these errors were repeated in Vietnam by four different presidents
both Republicans and Democrats. None apparently knew that Ho Chi Minh was a nationalist
who quoted ver batim from the American Declaration of Independence in his inaugural speech.
None apparently knew that he was at the 1919 “peace talks” excited by Wilson’s pledges of
national sovereignty only later to find out that it did not apply to Asia. His alleged communist
connections were only because they were the only nation to communicate with him with respect.
Vietnam is a case study in the violation of the truth-seeking process proposed by the
Enlightenment who had adopted Bacon’s dynamic, collaborative, and cumulative process.Robert
McNamara, one of the architects of this American disaster, provided a retrospection of Viet Nam
in Wilson’s Ghost40 that finally concluded that those who had promoted this tragedy shared a
cultural conditioning that precluded the challenge and debate process necessary to find truth.
This was a blatant violation of Bacon’s principle of collaboration that includes diverse opinions.
The process was not dynamic because such opinions were not repetitively examined; and the
process was not cumulative because presumably educated men did not understand the history of
imperialism or the passion for national freedom from foreign domination. 54,000 young,
innocent Americans and millions of Vietnamese were the victims of ignorant and arrogant men,
whose successors would repeat the error.
40
Robert S. McNamara and James G. Blight, Wilson’s Ghost, Reducing the Risk of Conflict, Killing, and
Catastrophe in the 21st Century, (New York: BBS Public Affairs, 2001).
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1971, Excessive volatility: President Nixon abandoned the Bretton Woods agreement and let the
dollar “float,” that is, let the international money market determine its value. For the first time in
commercial history, no international stabilizing monetary system was in place. Nixon had
“closed the gold window” and America stopped converting dollars held by other countries into
gold. Nixon made this momentous decision without challenge and debate, and with little
understanding of its consequences. This caused the excessive volatility that allowed the world’s
currency speculators to dominate global economics with daily trades of close to $2 trillion
dwarfing all commercial transactions. According to Joel Kurtzman “It created enormous
arbitrage possibilities and set the stage for the invention of a myriad of new financial products.”
It uncoupled the “money” economy from the “real” economy of producing and selling things and
put them out of balance. 41 This egregious violation of capitalism’s need for neutral, non-volatile
money and stability in the international monetary system aided the rise of ultra-capitalism in
which currency speculation with borrowed money was a direct cause of reversing economic
momentum in many emerging economies. It spawned unregulated Hedge Funds and derivatives
that add liquidity for speculation and increase the risk to the entire economic system.
1974, ERISA: The government, through the Employee Retirement Income Security Act
mandated the present funding of future pensions and created the greatest opportunity in the
history of capitalism with as much as $100 billion a year available for investment. The law was
poorly written, however, and converted the economy from long-term and patient to short-term
and greedy ultra-capitalism with much of the money going into consumption by the finance
capitalists instead of investment in job growth. Stock market analysts threatened punishment or
rich rewards based on the daily price of the stock to make companies change their focus to
quarterly earnings (e.p.s.). Although the wage earners had become the new capitalists, through
their retirement funds, and therefore, the source of new capital, the rewards of capitalism were
captured by the finance capitalists-an intolerable contradiction.
Investment in long-term growth has been sucked out of the economy by years of “downsizing.”
Trillions of dollars have been wasted by stock buy-backs, and the annual compensation feast by
41
Joel Kurtzman, The Death of Money; How the Electronic Economy Has Destabilized the World’s Markets and
Created Financial Chaos, (New York: Simon& Schuster, 1993), pp.50, 51
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Wall Street’ money “managers” as they move the pension money from one pocket to another. An
opportunity was lost to not only invest in economic growth but also to invest in environmental,
educational, and infrastructure needs.
Despite the original intention of ERISA to protect pensions, many public and private plans are
not able to pay their obligations. Congress addressed the problem in 2006, but, again, did not ask
whether the money would be going into investment or consumption. In typical Congressional
form, the elected representatives of the people responded to the lobby power of the ultracapitalists and made it easier for pension funds to “invest” in hedge funds. The peoples’ money
is now going into high risk, unregulated, highly leveraged, hedge funds, previously available
only to the very rich, a further violation of the fiduciary responsibility of the institutional
investors. After enough hedge funds go broke, the people will not only have lost their pension
money but as taxpayers will end up bailing out the easy-lending banks. We shall see a repeat of
the S&L (Savings and Loan industry) scandal that began with a bad design by Congress and
ended with wasting several hundred billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money for the bailout.
ERISA is an Act of Congress that caused the excessive liquidity that diverts capital to
speculation and violates the precondition of capitalism to invest surplus capital for long-term
gain, not short-term speculation.
1986, Nuclear Disarmament: After the demise of communism, no international enemies
threatened. At that time, the world had an opportunity to replace the mentality of the inevitability
of war, with the inevitability of peace from economic common purpose. President Reagan and
Russian Premier Gorbachev came close to a sweeping nuclear weapons ban in Reykjavik in a
1986 summit meeting. “Only the panicked intervention of several presidential aides-some of
whom advise the current U.S. administration (George W. Bush)-pulled Ronald Reagan back
from the brink of agreement,”42according to The Nation.
This tragic mistake blew this best opportunity to demilitarize the world, and let the prophets of
violence prevail again. Now there are eight nations with nuclear weapons, four of whom, North
42
Robert D. English, “The Revolution Within,” The Nation, May 26, 2003, p. 36.
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Korea, India, Pakistan, and Israel, ignore the Non-Proliferation agreement. The world is one
assassination away from terrorist access to nuclear weapons. The combination of weapons of
mass destruction with young people eager to sacrifice themselves for their religious beliefs takes
the threat to new levels. The threat will recede when America renounces military imperialism
and starts to get rid of its bombs The threat will recede when the military-industrial complex
stops trying to provoke new enemies in order to sustain their over one-half trillion dollars a year
budget.
Gorbachev tried again in December 1988 by presenting his vision to the U.N. of “deep, unilateral
arms cuts; rejection of ideology in international relations; and a call for a new world order of
cooperation in solving such global problems as poverty, pollution, crime, and terrorism.”
43
Again he lacked American support, an example of the domination of foreign policy by the
military and American fascists determined for ideological and economic reasons to prevent the
demilitarization of the world.
1991:Iraq dictator: Saddam Hussein was indebted to America for providing weapons to help him
kill over a million Iranians in a long war, 1980-1988. When he presented his plan to the
American ambassador to annex disputed territory from Kuwait, Ambassador April Glaspie gave
him a green light, describing the action as a border incident not of importance to America.44
The first Iraq war caused by this mistake led to the billeting of 5,700 American forces in the
Muslim Holy Land, a terrible insult to religious fanatics like Osama bin Laden. These two
mistakes-another Western power invading the Muslim world, and the defiling of their Holy Land
with infidel troops- set the stage for 9/11.
A CATO study on “Suicide Terrorism and Democracy” concluded:
The specific goal sought in almost all suicide terrorists campaigns in modern
history is the same: to compel a democratic state to withdraw combat troops from
43
Ibid., p. 35.
44
Morris Berman, Dark Ages America, The Final Phases of Empire, (New York: W.W. Norton & Company,
2006), p. 183
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territory prized by the terrorists…suicide terrorism is mainly a response to foreign
occupation rather than a product of Islamic fundamentalism.45
This meddling in the affairs of other countries, with little understanding of their culture, is a
violation of America democratic principles.
1998, Ultra-capitalists reversed economic progress in emerging nations: Countries from Eastern
Europe to Asia, late in the 20th century, were adopting economic freedom to improve the lives of
their people.. Instead of building on this positive momentum, however, America pushed ultracapitalism on the world, derailed the Russian move to a free economy, and reversed economic
momentum in Asian nations. For example, Indonesia the world’s most populous Muslim nation
had reduced the percentage of its people under the poverty line from 40% to less than 10% in a
few decades. Ultra-capitalists, with hot money rushing out and currency speculators rushing in,
ruined that economy and put over 50% of Indonesians back below the poverty line in a matter of
weeks.
This was a tragic example of ignoring Smith’s conditions for the success of economic freedom:
money was not neutral, and the speculators were not under control. The Malaysian Prime
Minister, Mahathir Mohammed, a Muslim, called America and “economic imperialist” and
currency speculation “unnecessary, unproductive, and immoral.”46
The ideologues of the “liberalization of capital markets” had talked emerging economies into
taking down their cross border capital controls to let “free capital seek its most efficient
investment.” A good theory but in practice it was mainly borrowed money seeking its quickest
speculative gain. These ideologues made an enormous mistake in using free market principles in
finance capitalism and then suspending the disciplines with subsidies and bailouts. This is not
Adam Smith’s economic freedom in which he described finance capitalism as a subtraction from
the wealth of nations, a necessary administrative expense, why money had to be kept neutral, and
why the speculators kept under control. Joseph Stiglitz, former Chair of Clinton’s Council of
Economic Advisors and Chief Economist of the World Bank, described the ideologues of the
45
46
CATO Policy Analysis No. 582 Robert A. Pape, November 1, 2005
Joseph E. Stiglitz, Globalization and Its Discontents, (New York: W.W. Norton, 2002), p. 93
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liberalization of capital markets as “the most important factor leading to the crisis” 47 in
Southeast Asia.
1999, Hedge Funds: Brooksley Bonn, Chair of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission
(CFTC) recommended to Congress that derivatives and hedge funds be regulated. President
Clinton’s “Working Group on Financial Markets” including Alan Greenspan, Chair of the FED,
Secretary Rubin, of the Treasury, head of the SEC, and the new Chair of the CFTC rejected the
proposal. Bonn’s lonely voice was silent, she had resigned after they had ganged up on her. The
following year the “Commodities Futures Act” was passed further extending the use of borrowed
money to speculate.
A year earlier Hedge Fund LTCM (Long Term Capital Management), needed a bailout when it
lost $3.6 billion. LTCM had failed to hedge its bets; rather, it “went directional” and bet on
Russian bonds, not anticipating a default. Forbes commented: “Meriwether (LTCM’s head)
seemed to have a magic touch. What he really had was nerve-wracking leverage.” 48 According
to Roger Lowenstein “Incredibly Greenspan again downplayed the risks posed by rogue
investors such as hedge funds. The Chariman’s credulity seemed to know no bounds” Greenspan
was not trying to be funny when he testified that “Hedge funds are strongly regulated by banks
who lend the money”49 He was being consistent with his role of protector, not regulator, of
ultra-capitalism
In September of 2006, hedge fund Amaranth Advisors lost $6 billion of its total assets of $9.23
billion in a matter of weeks. Like LTCM it did not hedge, it “went directional,” this time on gas
prices. Under increasing pressure to improve earnings, hedge funds do not hedge, that is make
bets in both directions in order to be “market neutral,” they make bets that their horse will run in
only one direction.
Gretchen Morgenson, New York Times columnist, curious about how Amaranth Advisors could
lose two-thirds of their total worth in a couple of weeks asked the question “Where were the
47
Ibid., p.99.
Robert Lenzer, “Archimedes on Wall Street,” Forbes, October 19, 1998), p.53
49 Roger Lowenstein, When Genius Failed, The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management, (New York:
Random House, 2000), p.178
48
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commodities regulators?” She answered her own question “By going back to Dec 15, 2000 the
final day of the 106th congress, when a last-minute provision was inserted into legislation
removing oversight from energy commodities traded on over the counter electronic exchanges.
The provision was an early Christmas gift for a hard working lobbyist-Enron!”50
It gets worse. Hedge funds that managed $257 billion ten years ago, now manage over $1 trillion
and are attracting the peoples’ pension money. A headline in the WSJ announced: “Congress
May let Hedge Funds Manage More Pension Money.” 51 The original rationale for no regulation
of hedge funds was that their customers were all sophisticated millionaires and they could
understand the risk. Who will tell the people?
This is an example of the awesome lobby power of ultra-capitalism. The government not only
violates the responsibility to control currency and credit for the general welfare, but government
officials, both Republicans and Democrats, are lobbied to be protectors, not regulators, of ultracapitalism.
Populist agenda, where we go from here
Are the people defenseless? No, they have the will and the wisdom, they have the political
structure that is supposed to filter their wisdom, they have the votes, they have the Internet to
expedite communication, they only need a democratic capitalist agenda and new leadership from
either party to break America’s gridlock.
Do not expect help from the colleges and universities where knowledge is fragmented and
specialized. They have lost the mission to integrate knowledge for social progress, and many
even claim that education of citizens is not their responsibility.
Do not expect the money managers of your retirement funds to invest your money for your longterm benefit. They are the shock troops for ultra-capitalism who are violating their fiduciary
responsibility. They are employed by the people, however, and will respond when enough
50
Gretchen Morgenson, “Dangers of a World Without Rules.” New York Times, September 24, 2006, p.1
Deborah Solomon, “Congress May Let Hedge Funds Manage More Pension Money” Wall Street Journal, July
28, 2006, p. 1,
51
- 45 -
pressure is applied to support a democratic capitalist agenda.
Do not expect to be informed by the popular media. Most news people are economically illiterate
because the same colleges and universities that failed to educate citizens also failed to educate
future journalists about economic matters affecting the country’s future.
You’re on your own but the task is not that daunting. We have economic freedom, including the
all-important conditions for success, provided by Adam Smith. We have the summary of the
classical liberalism of the 18th century Enlightenment by the Marquis de Condorcet; we have
Marx’s visions and we have the integration of this vision with private property and competition
by Mill. The blueprint to democratize capitalism is clear and time tested over two centuries,
readily available for inquiring minds. It awaits examination by the people and determined
application of reform.
The highlights of an agenda are:

Stop speculation with borrowed money

Provide a “capital wage” for all wage earners from tax-free dividends on
pension and 401
(k) savings

Change the measurement of corporate performance to a three-year running average of sales
growth, profits, and cash flow against management’s predictions
Is that all that’s needed? Three steps sounds too simple, but will have a profound effect. The
control of speculation with borrowed money will prevent asset inflation and eliminate the
recessions and depressions that have damaged millions of people. Tax-free dividends will
activate the trillions of dollars now being held passive in the stock market and give the wage
earner a secure double-digit return, half dividends, half appreciation. Tax-free dividends will
make profit sharing and ownership plans so attractive to the wage earners that they will become
nearly universal. Hundreds of billions of dollars a year will be returned to the people and to the
economy, money that is now wasted on stock buy-backs and non-strategic acquisitions. The
extension of this distribution of wealth abroad will provide the spendable income to make free
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trade a universal benefit. The change of measurement of corporate performance will emancipate
good companies from the short-term earnings pressure and will return the stock market to its
proper function of moving savings into job-growth investment and away from speculation and
consumption by the finance capitalists.
This is the core agenda that will harmonize democracy and capitalism at home and
position America to lead in economic common purpose abroad. To accomplish this
new American revolution, the following ideas are presented as planks in a reform
platform, means for actualizing the three steps of economic reform described above:
# 1-Free Wage Earners’ Capital!
Wage earners have become capitalists from pension funding and 401(k) savings, but are not
receiving a return on their capital. Large dividends can free this capital by adding a “capital
wage” to the labor wage.
A company’s surplus should be reinvested and paid in dividends to grow the economy. Instead,
during the past quarter of the 20th century, over a trillion dollars was wasted on stock buy backs
that hyped the stock price and CEOs’ options, and acquisitions that make the deal-makers rich by
cutting jobs. Combined with exorbitant mutual fund fees, and quicker turnover of stock sales by
commission brokers, ultra- capitalism, (the kind that traditionally exploited the workers’ labor) is
now exploiting the workers’ capital.
Led by pension funds, companies should be pressured to maximize growth and dividends, and
the government should be pressured to make dividends tax-free for wage earners. A secure
double-digit return, balanced between annual income from dividends and appreciation in a
growing economy, will reward the working owners of capital, not the money handlers.
# 2-Stop Economic Cannibalism!
That capitalism, whose mission is making money on money, rather than job growth, now
dominates the American economy because of the stock market’s power to richly reward or
severely punish companies based on small changes in quarterly earnings per share (e.p.s.).
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Enormous stock options are the coupling device between the stock market and CEOs that results
in a feeding frenzy in compensation, sacrifice of profitable, long-term growth programs for
short-term earnings, and the “downsizing” of millions of workers, treated as disposable cost
commodities.
The solution to this economic cannibalism is deceptively simple. Wage earners should demand
that money managers change the way companies are measured from short-term earnings per
share to a three-year running average of sales growth, profits, and cash flow, compared to
managements’ predictions. Accountability for sales shifts attention to long-term growth; and
focus on cash flow against predictions assures integrity in the numbers. For example, this cash
flow discipline would have identified the cancer at Enron early enough to minimize the damage
to jobs and pensions.
# 3-Speculate with Your Own Money!
Speculators borrow hundreds of billions of taxpayer-insured dollars from regulated banks to
leverage risky bets. Currency and credit is controlled not for the general welfare but for the
speculators.
The Crash of ‘29 and the Great Depression, that nearly destroyed this greatest of democratic
experiments, contained all of the lessons that if learned would have prevented subsequent
economic damage including the Bubble of the 1990s. Specific events that damaged many -such
as LTCM in 1998, and Enron in 2001, could have been avoided if the government would, in fact,
control currency and credit for the general welfare.
During the 1920s, speculators quadrupled their borrowings to buy stock. AFTER the inevitable
Crash, the government raised taxes, shrank the money supply, increased bank reserves, and
curtailed loans to buy stock, the right moves at the wrong time. If government had used these
same tools BEFORE the Crash, the Crash would not have happened, but the government always
lets the rich get richer before the poor get poorer.
Daily speculation in currency alone is now over $2 TRILLION DOLLARS dwarfing all real
commerce! The people, led by pension-fund managers, must demand that their government take
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these preventive actions BEFORE speculators destroy more jobs, pensions, and the world’s
economy.
# 4-Leadership to Economic Common Purpose
Late in the 20th century, countries were improving the lives of their people through economic
freedom, the world was uniting in economic common purpose, and the violence was abating.
The world then took a wrong turn that reversed economic momentum and caused social tensions
and unprecedented violence. What went wrong?
America abandoned economic leadership for military might in an attempt to run the world but
resulting in a spectacular failure of leadership. At home, bad capitalism lobbied laws that
resulted in a short-term economy with record concentration of wealth. Abroad, emerging
economies were devastated by uncontrolled hot money and currency speculation causing Muslim
leaders to criticize America as an economic imperialist.
Through the pension fund managers, the people must lobby for laws that support
economic growth and broad wealth distribution at home, and leadership towards
economic common purpose abroad, including a capital wage in large tax-free
dividends, a change in measurement of corporate performance from short to long
term, limitations on borrowed money for speculation, and international monetary
rules that balance hot money with long-term investment.
# 5 Tax Incentives for Good Capitalism!
Democratic capitalism maximizes the creation of wealth by releasing the innovation and
productivity of people, and maximizes the distribution of wealth through profit sharing and
employee ownership. Congress should legislate favorable tax treatment for democratic capitalist
companies paid for by reductions in corporate welfare. With this encouragement, good
capitalism would displace the bad capitalism that treats workers as disposable, sacrifices job
growth for short-term earnings, and has concentrated wealth in record amounts.
Qualification for this tax advantage includes: demonstrable integrity and meritocracy, profit- 49 -
sharing and stock ownership plans for all, attrition and retraining instead of lay-offs, CEO base
salary less than 35 times the lowest wage, stock grants instead of options with tax consequences
for company and recipient, executive bonuses in company stock, no stock sales by executives or
directors until retirement, reinvestment in growth and payment of large dividends instead of
stock buy backs and non-strategic acquisitions, and financial reporting on long term sales,
profits, and cash flow instead of quarterly earnings per share.
# 6-Break the Political Gridlock!
FDR observed that there was nothing wrong with the free enterprise system except that we had
not tried it yet. Unfortunately, we have yet to try it because of political gridlock. Market
fundamentalists, generally Republicans, loudly oppose government involvement while lobbying
for government privileges to speculate with borrowed money and concentrate wealth.
Collectivists, generally Democrats, angered by this wealth concentration, lobby government to
redistribute the money as benefits. Each group sustains support by pointing out errors of their
opposite.
Neither group focuses on eliminating impediments that prevent capitalism from generating more
wealth and distributing it broadly, such as limiting easy bank credit for speculation that caused
loss of jobs, wages, and pensions, activating the workers’ pension and 401 (k) savings by large
tax-free dividends; and changing corporate accountability from short-term earnings to long-term
growth.
Citizens can apply their democratic power to reform these government fiscal and
monetary policies, and to assure that their money managers’ mission is not
personal gain but, rather, maximum return for the workers.
# 7-Listen to Henry!
Capitalism succeeds when DEMAND from higher wages for low and middle-income workers
matches SUPPLY. Purchases at this income level add volume, reduce cost and price, and spread
wealth- an economic dynamic not matched by more wealth for the wealthy.
- 50 -
Henry Ford, watching his Model T cars rolling off the assembly line in 1915, figured out that
unless he raised his workers’ wages way up to $5 a day, they could not afford to buy the cars.
DEMAND could not match SUPPLY and sales would drop.
Globalization can unite the world in economic common purpose, but it has become a dirty word
because most managers of global companies aren’t as smart as Henry was. They try to maximize
short-term profits by suppressing wages and benefits, not by motivating workers to long-term
superior performance with profit sharing and ownership opportunities.
Globalization will remain a source of friction until global companies pay enough, including
incentives, so that workers can both cover basic needs and have money left over to buy products
from other countries.
# 8-They’re Feasting on Your Pension!
Federal law in 1974 required companies to put money away to pay pensions. Based on stock
market history, you had a right then to expect a 10% total return from 5% dividends, and a 5%
increase in value of stocks.
What you got, instead, was a bubble market, companies without money to pay pensions, and 1%
dividends. The handlers of your money, meanwhile, increased their personal wealth through
revenues multiplying from $27 billion to $270 billion. Brokers collected commissions on stocks
held on average less than a year, instead of the historical six years; fees for “managing” money
went way up; and your money was used to acquire companies and fire workers.
Fix this rip-off by demanding that the financial motivations of the handlers of your money be
aligned with your retirement needs! Instead of commissions and annual fees, pay for 5-year
performance. This change will also move the stock market from short-term greed to long-term
growth.
# 9-Federal Reserve Board’s Mission
Pension plans are $1.3 trillion short of money to pay retirees because the government failed to
prevent the Bubble Economy, failed to protect dividend income, stimulated the housing bubble
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with zero-cost money, and allowed companies to use fictitious stock prices instead of putting real
money away to pay future pensions.
The Fed fights price inflation aggressively to protect the wealthy, but denies responsibility for
asset inflation in stocks or real estate that hurts ordinary people. The Fed pumps borrowed
money into speculation, not job growth; deregulates finance but bails out bankers after dumb
loans; and stands by while companies walk away from pension obligations!
This Fed must change its mission from protecting Wall Street to helping Main Street. The
present mission is destroying the savings of the same people whose taxes will have to pay future
pensions. Democratic action must challenge the Fed to use available tools of taxes, bank
reserves, interest rates, and stock margin limits to control currency and credit for the general
welfare, that is, to prevent asset inflation.
# 10- Not More or Less, but Better Government
American collectivists increased the amount of national income taken in all taxes during the 20th
century from 3% to over 35%. Much of the increase was expedited by stupid wars that required
central micromanagement. Many new bureaucrats came to Washington during wars, but few left!
Wars between nations should be over but the military expenditures continue along with the
central micromanagement.
Your government should be reorganized on the philosophy and protocols of democratic
capitalism, that is, decentralization, participation, empowerment, and results-based, not rulesbased. The proliferations of laws that politicians love to take credit for, should be minimized by
adopting John Stuart Mill’s advice about “non-authoritarian government,” the promulgation of
useful information but not more laws. For example, instead of OSHA inspectors roaming the
country looking for infractions, worker safety can be improved through insurance costs and
taxes. Punishing the profit line has more effect than bureaucratic oversight.
# 11-Mother of All Lies
People are propagandized to believe that war is an unavoidable part of human existence rather
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than an obscene contradiction to reason.
The killing by governments of 160 million people during the 20th century was not an historical
inevitability; but it happened, rather, because of mistakes made by a few men with more power
than reason. Prussian Field Marshall Moltke pushed the Austrians into attacking the Serbs,
starting WW I; and American President Woodrow Wilson’s ignorance of economics at the 1919
“peace” talks led to Hitler and WW II.
American hawks now need to make an enemy out of China to rationalize the one-half trilliondollar waste of the taxpayers’ money for military expenditures. Fighting terrorists does not
require nuclear subs. If the hawks prevail in this new mistake, Americans will lose legs, arms,
and lives in a contrived crisis to “protect” Taiwan as a matter of “national honor.”
China is doing well in its mission to improve the lives of their people though economic freedom,
while lending America the money to fund our deficit. China is going around the world making
commercial arrangements, while America goes around the world adding to its hundreds of
military bases for hundreds of thousands of troops. America’s mission should be to lead the
world in economic common purpose, not dominate the world with military might. Citizens must
demand a foreign policy with this economic priority.
# 12-Repeal the Repeal !
Was anyone watching in 1999 when the Glass-Steagall Act was repealed? This law had been
passed during the Great Depression because bankers were giving companies easy credit to do
dumb things in order for their investment bankers to get deals with big fees.
The monster financial services company, Citi, demonstrated Wall Street’s lobby power when it
was put together in anticipation of the repeal. Citi, with other big banks, immediately gave Enron
easy credit to do dumb things in order for their investment bankers to get deals with big fees.
Enron, the hedge fund on top of a gas line, was free to quadruple debt in five years to $13.6
billion.
After Glass-Steagall was repealed, thousands of Enron’s employees lost their jobs and pensions,
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and many others lost their pension savings. Why has there been no democratic demand to repeal
the repeal? Citizens should, at least, demand that their government regulate hedge funds before
more jobs and pensions are destroyed.
# 13-Root Problem Solved
Economic freedom can satisfy basic needs of people, and unite nations and cultures in economic
common purpose. To accomplish this, money must be merely a medium of exchange, and
speculators must be kept under tight control. When these conditions are in place, wealth and
political power will be diffused, and capitalism and democracy will be in harmony.
Conversely, when money is treated as a profit-making commodity, and speculators deflect
borrowed money away from job growth, then wealth and political power will continue to be
concentrated, capitalism and democracy will continue to be in tension, the world will continue to
be full of violence, and the more than two billion people who live on less than $2 a day will
continue to go hungry, be sick, and lead miserable lives.
Citizens fail to understand either the function of money or the need to control speculators
because educators, at all levels, cannot teach what they have not studied: the interaction between
capitalism and democracy. Once educators learn and teach the essentials of economic freedom,
then citizens will know how to reform public policy to allow economic freedom to function at—
for the first time—full potential.
# 14-Reaffirm Idealism!
A world of plenty is attainable in both democratic and authoritarian governments through
economic freedom. When people live better, violence goes down, other freedoms follow, and the
ideal of a world of peace is attainable. Improvement in the lives of people and their children is
the only ideal common to all nations and cultures; consequently, economic common purpose is
the only way to unite people.
This ideal is more attainable in the 21st century because the Information Age adds new levels of
productivity, new communications technology making the world a global village; and is itself a
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unifying influence. The world is ready to free the body of material needs, and free the spirit to
reach full potential, once the impediments of concentrated wealth and violence are eliminated.
Citizens must vote for candidates who reaffirm the ideal that peace and plenty are attainable, that
economic freedom is the means, and that economic common purpose is the way to unite people
and stop violence.
# 15- Job Growth or Stock-Market Casino?
Capitalism is based on converting savings into investment. Since 1974, federally mandated
pension funding provided an enormous savings-investment opportunity with as much as $100
billion a year looking either for investment in equity capital for growth companies or for
purchase of bonds for infrastructure needs.
Most of the money, instead, went to the stock market, inflating prices, causing a feeding frenzy
in executive compensation. CEOs were whipped into being one-trick ponies: Fire! Over a trillion
dollars was wasted in a quarter century on stock buy-backs and acquire-and-fire deals. They also
have the indirect effect of shrinking the supply of stock adding to the imbalance of demand from
pension money to supply of stock creating an artificial push in the up direction.
The media loves to report on this casino. The talking heads report every few minutes with silly
reasons for market movement, including futures, when the real reason is that more gamblers are
buying than selling, or the opposite.
Wage earners, ask your money managers two questions: How much pension money is actually
invested in the job-growth economy? How much did “managers,” brokers, and specialists take
off the top pushing your money around?
# 16-An Enron Protector
After Enron and other scandals, Congress passed Sarbanes-Oxley, a typical “catch a crook” law
that adds cost and solves little. Government’s own failure to control currency and credit for the
general welfare allowed these disasters to happen. Only by limiting easy credit can they be
prevented.
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This has been the cause for every business-cycle boom-and-bust in American history. Why?
Because your government treats money needed for job growth the same as money used for
speculation. The resulting concentrated wealth concentrates political power; the former corrupts
capitalism, the latter corrupts democracy by writing rules that privilege the few.
When government’s mission becomes truly the protection of jobs and pensions, it will use bank
regulation to encourage job growth and limit risky speculation. When companies are required to
project cash requirements for three years, the lack of control of speculation will become
apparent, and the brakes will be applied by increasing the cost of money and bank reserves.
Wage earners, demand that your elected representatives limit easy credit. Do that and you will
have protected your job and your pension..
# 17-Warning, Bad Storm Coming!
The American economy is in a financialization phase similar to a condition that ruined countries
such as 16th-century Spain, 18th-century Netherlands, and 20th-century Great Britain. The
manifestations include shifting taxes from capital to the middle class, treating wage earners as
disposable cost commodities, and finance capitalism that is dominant, not supportive of
commerce.
For example, since 2000, premium, floating-rate housing loans have grown seven fold to $450
billion for those whose who do not qualify for a conventional loan. As the Fed raises their rates,
most borrowers will not be able to pay the addition to their mortgage payments. The banks say,
“why worry?” because they have used credit derivatives to pass on the risk, a market that tripled
to $8.5 trillion in 2004. Hedge funds are betting on increased foreclosures; your pension funds
are betting that things will not be that bad. Many of the most vulnerable home owners were
seduced into the floating rate loans with special deals and will lose their homes.
Wage earners must demand that their elected representatives regulate hedge funds and
derivatives before runaway speculation destroys more pensions and the economy.
# 18- Better Governance
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Corporate governance tends to “gotcha” type negative oversight intended to catch somebody at
something. Here are three positive ways to improve corporate governance:
Distribution of surplus: Outside Directors of public companies should determine the distribution
of surplus among growth, dividends, stock buy-backs, and non-strategic acquisitions. The first
two should be favored because they help the job-growth economy. The latter two waste the
surplus but are favored by CEOs under pressure to hype short-term earnings. Moving this
responsibility away from the CEO to outside Directors can add a longer-term balance to
corporate planning and help neutralize the short-term pressure.
Compensation: Compensation Committees composed of outside Directors should be responsible
for the compensation practices of all employees in order to assure an internal logic and
encourage performance bonuses and ownership opportunities. At present, most Committees
respond only to consultants’ recommendations for additions to the executive smorgasbord that
feeds the compensation frenzy and alienates the people.
Internal audit: Company integrity should be monitored by the Internal Audit Department that
reports to both the CEO and the Audit Committee of outside Directors. The CEO should provide
quick and visible action in response to any violation of company ethics; the Audit Committee
must guarantee to Internal Audit an unrestricted access to all operations.
# 18-American Leaders, Please Stand Up!
Improvement in the human condition depends on an economic system that maximizes wealth by
releasing the innovation and productivity of wage earners, and distributes wealth to the greatest
number of people through profit sharing and ownership opportunities. Strong, steady economic
growth can then provide government revenues for educational, health, and environmental needs.
The name of the system that does all of this is democratic capitalism, an economic system
superior to all others that raises profits by elevating the quality of life, unites people in economic
common purpose, and can stop the violence.
This superior performance of democratic capitalism has been validated in companies and
countries for over two centuries, but it is not yet universal because of the impediments of
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concentrated wealth and violence among nations and cultures. Movement towards the superior
system awaits rejection by Americans of short-term and greedy ultra-capitalism, and an
understanding of why other nations reject America’s imperialistic effort to run the world. This is
the agenda at home and abroad that most Americans desire. Political leaders who understand and
present the potential of democratic capitalism will be elected and receive enthusiastic support in
the reform of capitalism and foreign policy.
The results will be dramatic. Americans will respond to visible evidence of a fair society, a large
increase in total wealth, and a broad distribution. Stronger and steadier economic growth will
provide the tax revenues to help people and the environment. People will see their government
by emulating democratic capitalism participation will function better at considerably less cost.
The people will again participate in their own governance; and regain idealism in the process.
Once Americans have refined capitalism, restructured government, and regained idealism they
will reposition American foreign policy to be a strong team player. From confidence in reformed
economic freedom and excitement about the unifying power of economic common purpose
America can show the way to peace and plenty. The fanatics will lose their support as young
people in all cultures demand participation in the good life. In this world without national
enemies, America can then lead in demilitarization, the guns can be finally be beaten into
ploughshares. Democracy will demonstrate the capacity to correct itself aided by the arrival of
new leadership that knows how to properly harmonize democracy and capitalism
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Chapter 3
Institutional Investors: Agents Of Change
Every few hundred years in Western history there occurs a sharp transformation.
We are currently living through just such a transformation. It is creating the postcapitalist society. Instead of the old-line capitalists, in developed countries pension
funds increasingly control the supply and allocation of money.—Peter Drucker52
During the last quarter of the twentieth century a new capitalism emerged as a global system with
the potential to combine the capacity of capitalism to eliminate material scarcity with the Marxian
ideal of broad wealth distribution. This new wage-earner capitalism, called either "pension
socialism" or "employee capitalism" by Peter Drucker53 is here called democratic capitalism where
labor and the source of capital become one.
Initiated by federal law requiring present funding for future pension benefits the ownership of public
companies shifted dramatically to the wage-earner. American institutional investors—pension
funds, mutual funds, insurance companies, banks, foundations, and university endowments
increased their money to be managed from $673 billion in 1970, under $2 billion in 1980, to well
over $12 trillion by the end of the century.54 Ownership of public companies by the wage-earners
grew from under 15% to over 50%.
More extraordinary than the explosive growth of wage-earner capitalism by the end of the twentieth
century was the reality that instead of resulting in a diffusion of economic and political power,
wealth was more concentrated in the United States. Instead of public companies becoming more
accountable for the long-term financial and social benefits of their majority owners, they adopted
the goal of short-term earnings.
52
Peter Drucker, Post-Capitalist Society (New York: Harper Business, 1993) p. 1, 6.
53
Drucker, op. cit., p. 82.
54
Jeff Gates, Ownership Solution, Towards a Shared Capitalism for the 21st Century (Reading, MASS: Addison-Wesley 1998) pp. 2, 3.
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The paradox of more democratic ownership in contrast to more concentration of wealth and a less
socially sensitive capitalism can be traced to an egregious government mistake. ERISA, passed by
the US. Congress in 1974, misdirected trillions of dollars of the wage-earner's pension savings to
Wall Street, and shifted momentum to short-term and greedy ultra-capitalism. The institutional
investors helped ultra-capitalism, a/k/a "the American model" become dominant instead of
developing a suitable mission, measurement, and accountability for this new form of capitalism.
The government failed to analyze alternative uses of this new flow of democratic capital. Instead
they responded to the lobby power of Wall Street and sent most of it to the stock market. A new
chapter in the book of making money from special government privileges was written.
For the two centuries of the Industrial Revolution finance capitalism had exploited the workers'
labor, now in the early stages of the Information Age revolution ultra-capitalism has learned how to
exploit the workers' capital. Instead of leading the world to the benefits of democratic capitalism,
the institutional investors during the final decades of the twentieth century have become the shock
troops for finance capitalism and forced ultra-capitalism on the world.
Peter F. Drucker spent most of the twentieth century analyzing the organization of human affairs.
His more than one dozen books range from management, politics, economics, to society in general.
Drucker, born in Vienna, educated there and in England, became a professor of politics, philosophy,
management, and social sciences at American colleges, while being a student of Japan and Japanese
art. Drucker commented on ultra-capitalism:
What emerged from this frantic decade (hostile takeovers, leveraged buy-outs,
downsizing, etc.) was a redefinition of the purpose and rationale of big business and
of the function of management. Instead of being managed `in the best balanced
interests of stakeholders,' corporations were now to be managed exclusively to
`maximize shareholder value.'
This will not work, either. It forces the corporation to be managed for the shortest
term, but that means damaging, if not destroying, the wealth-producing capacity of
the business. It means decline and finally swift decline. Long-term results cannot
be achieved by piling short-term results on short-term results. They should be
achieved by balancing short-term and long-term needs and objectives. Furthermore,
managing a business exclusively for the shareholders alienates the very people on
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whose motivation and dedication the modern business depends: The knowledge
workers. An engineer will not be motivated to work to make a speculator rich.55
The first priority for institutional investors is to examine the proposition that democratic capitalism
maximizes long-term shareholder value because the system that maximizes the innovation and
productivity of each should, as Marx proposed, add up to the system that maximizes the benefits for
all. Exclusive concentration on short-term results will eventually be self-defeating as it destroys the
motivation of those upon whom the long-term success of any enterprise depends.
In 1974, the U.S. government, undertook to protect workers' pensions, and created a long bull
market as an unintended consequence.
The profound change in the amount and direction of capital flow in the United States began in 1964
when Studebaker went broke, and thousands of employees under 60 years old witnessed the
disappearance of their pension benefits. The legislators properly decided that this was not fair; led
by Senator Vance Hartke, (D.- Indiana) Congress proceeded to work on legislation in response to
the problem. After ten years, with the help of Senator Jacob Javitz, (R.- New York), ERISA
(Employee Retirement Income Security Act) was passed and signed by Gerald Ford a few weeks
after he became president.
The purpose of the law was to guarantee that a person's pension would be paid when earned, and
many in Congress competed for the credit over this important new social legislation. The law
requires that benefits be fully funded through trustees outside of company control. The sections of
the law dealing with the personal liability of directors of companies scared them, for mishandling
pension money in this new complex law might result in an attack on their personal resources.
Whether the threat was real or perceived, directors were motivated for maximum insulation and
discharged their responsibilities through a management committee who hired and fired money
managers based on performance measured in quarterly and annual terms.
This was the genesis of the short-term earnings environment as the same performance time
framework was passed onto company results. The quarterly and annual scorekeeping pension fund
performance was usually based on the A. G. Becker median, a service that boy 1974 was measuring
the performance of 3500 managed portfolios.
55
Peter F. Drucker, Post-Capitalist Society (New York: Harper Business, 1993) p.80.
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At the time ERISA became law companies had discretion on how much cash went into pension
funding. Although an actuarially determined amount was charged against earnings, only a fraction
of that was funded in cash. In effect, capital stayed in the company and was used for growth,
dividends, or acquisitions.
Most pension plans were defined-benefit, that is, the company was responsible for paying workers a
specific monthly benefit on retirement. Companies argued successfully that any gains on defined
benefit money in the stock market was theirs, not the workers, because they guaranteed the pension
no matter what the market did. As the market rose, companies were able to improve earnings by
using the higher stock values in their actuarial assumptions to determine the amount of pension
expense to be deducted from profits.
Gradually the defined-benefit pension plan was displaced by the defined-contribution plan where
the worker and the company each contributed a specific sum to be invested to provide future
pension benefits. Such forced savings are a sensible policy of government to maximize the citizens'
future security; further, this defined contribution was attractive to companies because they were able
to shift much of the cost to the worker. Cost-shifting by companies was aided by the 401-K tax law
that allowed the individual to contribute in pre-tax dollars, another good government policy to
encourage savings. By the time these features were added, the bull market had sufficient
momentum to validate the stock market as the preferred investment and attracted substantially more
liquidity. To a large extent it was a self-fulfilling prophecy, as the direction of the money was now
fixed toward Wall Street and the favored investment was stock.
The government did not use this new source of capital from ERISA to democratize capitalism by
buying shares in the company for the workers. In fact, the amount of money invested in the
workers' company was specifically limited to less than 10% of the pension plan assets based on the
conventional wisdom of not risking too many eggs in one basket. The alternative, insuring basic
pension benefits privately while using the money to fund company growth and building worker
ownership at the same time, was apparently not considered.
In time, a growing sense of ownership would have changed the culture in most companies to
democratic capitalism: Workers would have become more involved and motivated to innovate and
produce. From this environment, profits would have been maximized, distributed broadly, and the
persistent flaw of capitalism, concentrated wealth, would have lessened.
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Instead of finding new ways to democratize capitalism, the government, encouraged by the
strongest lobby force in Washington, directed the money to Wall Street and initiated the longest bull
market in history. The effect of this excessive liquidity hitting the stock market, can be measured
by comparative valuations of corporate earnings. Over a sixty-year period, the average stock price
was valued at sixteen times earnings. A few years before ERISA, this value was as low as seven.
By 2000, as the investable funds continued to grow, corporate earnings were valued over thirty,
double the sixty-year average. In dot.com companies, the earnings multiple was infinity as in most
cases there were no earnings. By late-2001, with corporate earnings declining, the multiple was still
illogically in excess of twenty.
Many celebrated a new worker's capitalism, or as Drucker expressed it:
If Socialism is defined, as Marx defined it, as ownership of the means of production
by the employees, then the United States has become the most "socialist" country
around while still remaining the most capitalist one as well. Pension funds are run
by a new breed of capitalists: The faceless, anonymous, salaried employees, the
pension funds' investment analysts and portfolio managers.56
This was a seismic shift in capitalism. For over the two centuries of the Industrial Revolution the
coupling of democracy and capitalism had improved millions of lives, though it had been an
imperfect process as both economic and political power were concentrated. Now that the wageearner was the majority owner, the logical expectation was that economic and political power would
be diffused. It did not work that way, however. The diffused worker ownership did not result in
diffused economic and political power.
Two illusions persisted in this worker's capitalism. One, the perception that the money flowing to
the stock market in some fashion is recycled to fund economic growth. With the exception of IPOs
that fueled the dot.com bubble, this was rarely true. Ultra-capitalism rejects the dilution that comes
from issuing more stock as a source of capital to grow on. Wall Street does not like dilution
because while the additional shares may fund long-term growth, they also reduce the all-important
earnings-per-share in the short-term.
56
Ibid., p. 6.
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The other illusion ignored the tidal effect of pension money. The tide of money that was rolling in
would eventually roll out when the money was paid out in retirement. The hydraulic buy-pressure
on the market will become a sell-pressure. This dramatic shift in the buy/sell dynamic will then be
exacerbated by changing demographics as more and more people will be retired, and fewer and
fewer working to provide the benefits.
The capital formation spawned by ERISA law has been enormous. About equally divided between
public and private plans, it approached $100 billion in a year and at the turn of the century, with the
inclusion of 401-K savings, totals over $4 trillion. One might assume that such a new source of
democratic capital would solve the problem of low-cost patient capital to build companies, invest in
education, infrastructure needs, and create jobs, but the architecture of the plan was such that the
money went to financial capitalism. In this process it partially funded junk bonds used for takeovers
and LBOs, built up mutual funds, financed speculation in derivatives, and helped fund real estate
speculation. Excessive liquidity was combined with opportunities to borrow enormous amounts of
money for speculation to multiply the values of artificial assets.
When ERISA required that money be taken out of the company and invested for a future purpose,
an extraordinary opportunity was presented to democratize capitalism: The money could have been
kept in the company for growth capital by buying shares for the workers. With the benefit of
keeping this capital in the company, large dividends could have been paid annually, allowing the
wage-earner the election of either taking the money for additional spendable income or reinvesting
it in additional shares.
The mid-1970s was a time of great opportunity for the government to democratize capitalism.
Congress was in the process of legislating this flow of capital through ERISA, at the same time
Senator Russell Long's committee was proposing, and Congress was passing, tax laws that
encouraged worker ownership through ESOPS.57 These activities could have been integrated with
Social Security and medical benefits, all from pre-tax dollars, and all with substantial contributions
from the wage-earner. Additional inducements could have been provided with tax-free dividends
and long-term capital gains for low- and medium- income wage-earners. Various financial
instruments, including convertible preferred stocks, combining the benefits of large dividends with
potential equity appreciation, could have been designed for the new capital flow and the integration
of the even greater flow of cash from Social Security.
57
See Chapter 5.
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None of this happened. Direct forms of worker ownership grew but without the benefit of favorable
dividend and capital-gains taxes. Social Security obligations continued to be unfunded, medical
costs continued to escalate to an incredible 15% of GDP (about double other mature economies) and
the excessive liquidity that was directed to Wall Street changed capitalism to short-term and greedy.
Although the damage was becoming more apparent in 2001, the political priority was not yet about
how to change tax laws to encourage worker ownership but rather how to cut income taxes and
eliminate the estate tax for the wealthy.
After the pension money pressure shifts from buy to sell, two other government errors will mature.
First, Social Security has never put money away for the future obligations; it has been used to
subsidize current government costs. The same phenomenon of more taking out and fewer putting in
will be repeated in Social Security. In addition, the government does not apply the ERISA
philosophy of present funding for future benefits to government pensions. If they did, the
government, civilian and military pension funding obligation would be over $1 trillion, and "the
funds needed to cover annual benefit payments by 2010 are expected to be $160 billion."58
After ERISA provided the cash flow directed to the stock market, the media helped build short-term
earnings pressure reporting that some managers of corporate pension funds were asleep at the
switch! They had an epithet for these managers "closet indexers," (a large equity group with return
based on averages) and needled "These closet indexers are sitting back playing it safe, yet charging
fees commensurate with active management. But the jig may be up and these guys are feeling the
heat."59 The article says that these fund managers were either called on the carpet and warned to be
more active or they were fired. This same article explains that fund managers had previously been
motivated to be conservative and stay out of trouble.
A few months later, the pressure on fund managers increased: "Pension Fund Performances Are
Rated as Poor Regardless of Type of Manager, Study Shows."60 Only 22 of every 100 funds
matched or exceeded the average annual return of the S&P 500 over a fifteen-year period. A
conservative approach to investment was assumed because of a drop in stock participation from
58
"The Biggest Pension Scofflaw? Uncle Sam." Business Week: December 6, 1993. Final page editorial.
59
Lawrence Rout, Wall Street Journal, Jan. 31, 1979, p. 23.
60
Charles J. Elia, Wall Street Journal, March 26, 1979.
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75% of the total in 1972 to less than 55% in 1978 with the money moved to safer but lower return
bonds.
Without any great effort, the Wall Street casino had a new source of capital. The speculative frenzy
of 1929, with its easy margin requirements, drew individual investors, foreign money, and finally
even big companies choosing the exciting rewards of speculative capitalism over the longer,
laborious returns of democratic capitalism. The central monetary fact after the 1980s was the effect
of additional pension funds creating a rising market that seemed to validate the logic of such
investment. The competitive demand for performance was satisfied with the sustained buy-pressure
driving up the Dow Jones from 750 in the early `70s to a high of over 12,000 in 2000. Pension fund
managers traded accounts actively to prove the value of their fees against that terrible comparison,
indexing. That is, investing in the average value of the stock market. The total amount of private
and public pension plans for investment went from under $800 billion in 1979 to over $4 trillion by
the turn of the century. In 1946, only 4% of the corporate equity was held by institutions, this
increased to 13% in 1965, 24% in 1975, 36% in 1996, and over 50% in 2001. Trading volumes
reached record levels, fund managers turned their entire portfolio over once every two years, adding
an impression of expert selection while building broker commissions.
Originally, some in the media had criticized the money managers for being too conservative with
the workers' pension money. Subsequently, they featured both arbitrageurs and money managers as
spokesmen for new capitalism and monitors of "entrenched management." Others in the media
warned that the changing dynamic had dangerous implications for the long-term health of the
economy. A Business Week cover story questioned: "Will the Money Managers Wreck the
Economy? Their short-term view derails companies' long-term plans."61On the other hand, Ivan F.
Boesky, later a convicted felon because of his financial actions, was quoted: "Executives think that
by concentrating on their business alone, they're doing a good job. That's not true." Boesky's
remark was accompanied by a full length picture of that gentleman striking a Napoleonic pose.62 A
Prudential Bache executive said, "The typical investment cycle was three to five years in the 1960s.
Now it's more a casino."63 Robert Monks, then chief ERISA administrator, later a "rock star" of
pension investments and a governance activist, encouraged the institutions to do something about
61
Business Week, cover story, August 13, 1984, p. 86, 93.
62
Ibid., p. 87.
63
Ibid., p. 88.
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"entrenched management." Not knowing much about competition and how inarticulate
unrepresented democratic capitalists really spend their day, the media jumped on this exciting new
concept of how to make those fat cats accountable. Bigger even than the photo of Boesky, was the
portrait of Monks looking solemn while pontificating that "pension fund managers should actively
support takeovers that boost their portfolio value."64 Fortune described the "liquidity surge"65 and
called the pension funds a major pipeline, pointing out that such pension funds, both large and
concentrated, were having increased influence over the financial markets.
As the trillions of dollars piled up in Wall Street, the increasing power of the institutional investor
could be gauged by the headlines in the financial media. In 1989: "Wall Street's New Muscle
Men,"66 in 1990, "Who's in Charge Here? Institutional Shareholders Are Gaining Clout,"67 and in
1991: "Who Owns This Company, Anyhow!? Institutional investors are increasingly calling the
shots in corporate America. Management doesn't like it."68
The excessive liquidity from pension funding helped fund the takeovers in the 1980s and 1990s.
The takeover artists learned to "downsize" quickly in order to get the funds for the "control
premium" they paid to make the takeover. First, the company's assets, including pension funds,
were used to collateralize the borrowings used for the takeover, then workers were fired in large
numbers. Downsizing was an easy and seductive opportunity, fire people and the short-term
earnings go up, of course.
The poster boy of ultra-capitalism is "Chainsaw" Al Dunlop. His success at Scott Paper made him a
media celebrity, and he even wrote a book. His arrival at old-line appliance maker Sunbeam
quickly caused a large increase in the stock price. His "turnaround" was impressive and generated
approval from the financial media and analysts. The "turnaround" was a fiction, however, as
Sunbeam eventually went bankrupt. In 2001, the SEC has a legal action against "Chainsaw Al" for
"cooking the books" at Sunbeam, an extreme, sad and tragic story, but one of many that are less
64
Ibid., p. 89.
65
Vivian Brownstein, "Where All the Money Comes From," Fortune, January 2, 1989, p. 75.
66
David Pauly, Newsweek, June 5, 1989, p. 45, 47.
67
Dean Foust, Eric Schrie, Business Week, March 19, 1990, pp. 38-9.
68
Rob Norton, Fortune, July 29, 1991, pp. 131-142.
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extreme and less visible.
Some in government were aware of this growing distortion of capitalism, but the lobbying power of
Wall Street was powerful enough to resist reform. Senator Howard Metzenbaum (D.- Ohio)
observed: "When business needs cash for a merger of takeover, the pension plan is one of the first
places they look."69 Many in the Senate recognized the monster that they had released in 1974 with
ERISA so they proposed reforms that should have been integrated into the original plan. Lloyd
Bentsen (D.- Texas), chair of the Senate Finance Committee proposed taxes on short-term trades of
securities by the tax-exempt pension funds. This concept was as vital to capitalism in 1989 as it is
in the new century. Use taxes to penalize and control short-term speculation and reward long-term
patient capital. Both Nancy Kassebaum (R.- Kansas) and Republican Minority Leader Bob Dole
announced support, but the effort failed in the face of lobbying by Wall Street, and state and
corporate pension managers.70
Despite increased ownership by the wage earners they had little opportunity to vote shares in the
determination of corporate policy. The institutional investor assumed this prerogative and in the
process, aided ultra-capitalism in becoming dominant with the perverted result that wealth became
more concentrated.
As the social and economic damage from ultra-capitalism becomes more apparent, the political left
will protest with the same lack of comprehension that they exhibited in 1974 when they missed an
unprecedented opportunity to democratize capitalism. Following the usual paths, political pressure
from the left will be for more government action, not correction of earlier mistakes. Collectivists,
sensitive to the general welfare with sufficient understanding of the conflicting forms of capitalism,
could have provided the countervailing lobby to Wall Street in 1974 and democratized capitalism.
Adam Smith defined the wealth of nations as the total production of goods measured by labor value.
He defined financial transactions as a subtraction from the wealth of nations.71 He warned that
money should be kept away from the "prodigals and projectors"72 whose speculative enterprises
69
Susan B. Garland, "Congress Has That Lean and Hungry Look," Business Week, November 8, 1989, p. 182.
70
James A. White, "Pension Managers Chilled by Notion of Tax on Trading," Wall Street Journal, September 22, 1989.
71
Adam Smith, An Inquiry Into the Nature And Causes of The Wealth of Nations (New York: Modern Library, published first in 1776).
72
Ibid., p. 309.
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artificially drove up values and diverted capital from productive purposes. If the available capital
represented by present funding of future pension benefits were to be used in the capitalism defined
by Smith, the funds would have been recycled as growth capital while providing workers an
opportunity to enjoy the rewards of capitalism through dividends and equity accumulation. If
dividends were tax-free and had priority over stock repurchase and non-strategic acquisitions, all but
very high-growth companies could pay 6% dividends. Workers' equity would grow with dividend
reinvestment and long- term appreciation. Liquidity would be provided by opportunities to borrow
at 6% for homes or education.
The American Dream was built by millions of people who were willing to make present efforts for
future benefits, in many cases their children's benefit. The new era of instantaneous expectations
reversed this philosophy and permitted ultra-capitalism to demand more and quicker profits, and to
dominate corporate goals. The future of many companies is being sacrificed for the present. When
this cupboard becomes bare, many companies resort to accounting tricks, some illegal, to meet Wall
Street's voracious appetite for quick profits. Management becomes simple and brutal: "Just give
me the numbers, dammit!"
One might ask: If ultra-capitalism is so bad, why did this American model look so good for so
long? The answer is that economic freedom in the United States has always been strong enough to
overcome impediments although never reaching a fraction of full potential. Besides, the
Information Age has added enormous productivity and growth and, finally, companies have been
hocking the future in a desperate effort to continue short-term earnings.
Marx's axiom is repeated throughout this book: Social progress depends on movement to a superior
economic system. The political structure must be organized to support the system that maximizes
surplus and distributes it broadly. As the surplus is maximized only by the involvement of
educated, independent thinking, wage-earners in an environment of trust and cooperation, the whole
culture can be unified and elevated by reflecting these attributes inherent in democratic capitalism.
Democratic capitalism is the superior economic system that can positively effect economics, politics
and the culture. The institutional investors have the power and the responsibility to abandon ultracapitalism and adopt democratic capitalism.
Too Little Too Late
Despite the damage done by excessive liquidity and ultra-capitalism spawned by pension funding,
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the institutional investors demonstrated that they could be positive agents of change, as institutional
investors used their growing democratic power to improve corporate governance. The perception
that power balance between management and the Boards of Directors before the 1980s was heavily
weighted to the CEO, was generally true. With the benefit of institutional pressure and Wall Street
analysts, companies did become more accountable and most boards strengthened governance
procedures. Some institutions made management more accountable by targeting poorly run
companies based on a reasonably long-term record. In most cases their criticism was earned, and in
many cases, action was provoked as outside directors took more responsibility. When the
democrats took over the White House in 1992 they sensed the opportunities for institutional
investors to extend their positive impact as agents of change. The democrats viewed the $2.3
trillion of pension investments, 40% of the nation's financial assets, as the people's money, with
great potential benefit for long-term job growth. By then, however, finance capitalism was
dominant and "shareholder value" not "stakeholders" had become the ruling principle supported by
the financial media and business schools. While it was usually expressed as "long-term shareholder
value," in practice long-term was a year, short-term the next quarter and the measurement was stock
price.
More and more CEOs became later day mercantilists treating the wage-earner as a cost commodity.
Many CEOs were enthusiastic "downsizers," many others were reluctant but pressured by the
analysts' quarterly reports that criticized them for not laying off enough people. The returns from
dominant finance capitalism were wonderful. Ordinary people could expect 12-15% annual
appreciation of their money. If you could make the entry requirements of a million dollars with
hedge funds you could "earn" 40% on your money in a year!
Along with all of this good feeling finance capitalism had been deregulated, market disciplines
suspended, and taxes shifted from capital to the wage-earners. For those whose mission was
making money on money it was the best of times.
Robert Reich, the new Clinton Secretary of Labor and Oleana Berg, Assistant Secretary for Pension
and Welfare Benefits Administration made long-term job growth and the largest, safest pension
benefits their mission. The ERISA pension money under their attention was $2.3 trillion, multiplied
about eight times since 1975 and heading for over $4 trillion by the turn of the century.
Secretary Reich identified the democratic capitalist culture as the one that would maximize profits,
jobs and benefits in the long-term. Reich did this working with CALPERS, the large California
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state employee pension fund, on what was basically the democratic capitalist mission: to raise both
productivity and the quality of life. CALPERS in turn used a consultant's study to confirm the
relationship between wage-earner morale and company performance:
A 1996 survey of 3,300 employees by management consultants Towers Perrin found
a dramatic rise in workforce disenchantment nationwide, particularly a feeling that
managers ignore employees' interests after making decisions that affect them. The
linkage between financial returns and people-responsive policies has simply become
too obvious to ignore.73
It seems strange that the capitalism of involved motivated and well paid workers of Adam Smith,
the experimental confirmation of the superior performance from investing in people by Robert
Owen, and the agreement by Marx and Mill that the involvement and reward for all would produce
superior results needed confirmation by late twentieth century consultants. It is not strange,
however, if democratic capitalism is not being presented in the business schools as the way to
maximize profits.
Assistant Secretary Berg, who had served on the Board of CALPERS for several years, made an
observation that linked the working culture and performance but also linked these with the stock
price assuming that long-term performance was a relevant criteria:
We've begun to review the existing literature that explains the relationship between
workplace practices and the corporation's performance. We are particularly
interested in determining how these practices affect the company's financial
performance. If, as we expect, a connection between high-performing workplaces
and superior long-term financial performance exists this superior performance
should be reflected in the stock price of such companies over the long run. It seems
intuitively logical that investments in human capital should positively affect the
performance of corporations that make such investments.74
It seems strange that a 1984 graduate of Harvard Business School should be searching for literature
73
Jeff Gates, Ownership Solution (Reading, MASS: Addison Wesley Longmans, Inc., 1998) p. 42.
74
"Cautious Optimist," Harvard Business School Bulletin interview, December, 1993, p. 29.
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on the relationship of the working culture and performance, concluding "intuitively" that investment
in human capital improves performance. The reason that it is not strange is that Harvard Business
School gives democratic capitalist little attention but gives finance capitalism extra attention.
Berg was quite explicit in distinguishing between damaging short-term goals and appropriate longterm mission:
Where pension funds fit into this picture is that, increasingly, the institutional
investors in this country are becoming the market, in that they now are the major
providers of investment capital as they grow larger. Our argument is that once
you've become the market it doesn't make sense for individual funds to try to play or
beat it on a quarterly basis. In fact, if we are too short-term oriented, we will hurt
our ability to compete globally; we need capital that is invested for the long term.
This is consistent with the need to develop high-performance companies, since we
believe that such companies will be the superior performers in the global
marketplace.75
These observations, early in the first Clinton administration, indicate the right mission expressed
with clarity. It was, however, too little, too late as the dominance of finance capitalism was nearly
total in 1993. At the same time that Reich and Berg were articulating a democratic capitalist
manifesto, President Clinton was joining Secretary of Treasury Robert Rubin in jawboning
emerging economies into taking down all cross border capital controls. This action was correct in
theory but disastrous in practice because of suspended market disciplines, no controls on "hot"
money or leveraged speculation. Berg put her finger on the excessive liquidity from ERISA that
caused short-term and greedy ultra-capitalism but, along with everybody else, did not expect the
bull market to keep charging. The Dow Jones was about 5000 at that time, a stratospheric level
compared to the 750 pre-ERISA, but nothing compared to the following rise to over 12,000.
Berg assumed that the efficient market would self-correct but while she identified the ERISA effect
on the buy-sell relationship she understated the extent of the distortion.
Part of the evolution in investment is stemming from the growth of pension funds.
When funds were much smaller as a portion of investable capital, their effects on the
75
Ibid., p. 29.
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economy as a whole were not as significant as they're becoming. There has been a
lot of concern recently about all the money going into stock mutual funds, for
example, which has driven up prices in the marketplace. Again, it's supply and
demand: As more money gets concentrated in one place, you have to think about
other kinds of investments to get appropriate risk-adjusted returns, because you can't
have more and more capital continuing to chase the same few investments without
changing the risk-reward ratio for those investments.76
With the domination by finance capitalism, all of this dialogue was abstract reasoning with limited
application in the 1993 environment and even less limited for the next eight years. The long-term
mission, no matter how compelling or how clearly stated, did not have a chance in the daily
excitement about stock price.
In 2001, the damage from ultra-capitalism is becoming more visible making a shift to democratic
capitalism with expanded worker ownership more urgent. The question remains: How bad will the
damage have to be before the institutional investors and the business schools discover democratic
capitalism as the way to maximize profits? For one of the few times in this book I have refrained
from coupling the maximization of profit with elevated spirits, unified people and an end to
violence as recognition of democratic capitalism as the way to superior profit performance alone
fulfills the fiduciary responsibility of the institutional investors and the mission of the business
schools.
If the analysis of alternatives had been pursued in 1974, the blow torch of money would not have
been directed at Wall Street, upsetting the buy-sell dynamic, financial instruments would have been
created for direct investment in infrastructure needs, wage-earners would have built an ownership
position by direct investment in their companies, with basic pension benefits insured, and
companies would have retained more capital to grow on.
The institutional investors can be the agents of change that benefits the long-term return to their
constituency and points the world toward peace and plenty.
The institutional investors as managers of money are responsible for identifying and supporting the
superior economic system. If, in fact, social progress is dependent on movement to the superior
76
Ibid., p. 30.
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economic system then the activities of the institutional investors have an important social
dimension.
If the superior economic system can sustain interdependent world economic growth, if people and
nations can unite in economic common purpose and stop the violence, then the institutional
investors' actions can have a direct effect on leading to a world of peace and plenty.
The institutional investor has a direct responsibility to refine capitalism to its most effective form
and to restructure government in support of the superior form of democratic capitalism. The
institutional investors, however, have a corollary responsibility to help energize people to work hard
for a common goal, that is to reaffirm idealism; and to help people and nations stop the violence by
international law backed by multilateral force, that is to reposition foreign policy.
This full menu for the institutional investor assumes that Enlightenment II has validated these
hypotheses and that educated citizens demand these actions by both their political and financial
representatives.
The following analyzes the hypotheses, and action required in these four categories:
Institutional Investors Can Help Reaffirm Idealism
Institutional investors can be a significant influence in energizing people by verifying the common
ideology of democratic capitalism. People need to learn again that there is an equal opportunity for
all to improve their lives, that it must be an interdependent effort, that the worldwide goal of
eliminating material scarcity and violence is attainable, and that realization of this agenda is no
utopian scheme but the sober responsibility of the new generation.
This reaffirmation is the necessary antidote to the negativism and relativism that infected society
throughout much of the twentieth century. The institutional investor can help the intellectual
community realize that the obscene failures of the century past, and the tragedy of September 11,
2001, were aberrations, a series of leadership errors, due to faulty truth-searching. The institutional
investor can help direct attention to the ideal that results in improved food, shelter, clothing, health,
education, and hope.
Idealism has been abandoned by many based on the sorry record of the twentieth century. The new
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transformation, however, is built from the individual up where, conversely, all of the twentieth
century failures were from top-down political structures. A society based on individual
development in a harmonious whole is universal in theory, and has been proposed by most religions
throughout history. The exciting difference is that it is now attainable in a smaller world aided by
the productivity and unifying influences of the Information Age.
The universal solution built up from the individual and capable of eliminating material scarcity was
also proposed by Karl Marx. Marx appreciated the record of capitalism in improving lives and he
anticipated a productivity explosion with greater wealth after the worker owned the means of
production. Marx proposed that recycling the surplus to the worker-owners would sustain
economic growth and avoid the repetitive economic damage caused by concentrated wealth.
Society has progressed through a struggle and contradictory fashion, but by the beginning of the
new century, two of the elements vital to Marx's ideal were in place: The productivity explosion
inherent in the Information Age, and worker ownership of the means of production in developed
countries. The distribution of wealth consistent with worker-ownership remains to be completed.
The specific means to broad wealth distribution are the refinement of capitalism and restructure of
government. The energy and determination applied to implementing these means will be
proportionate to the enthusiasm of those who embrace the ideal of sustained social progress through
movement to a superior economic system, defined here as democratic capitalism.
Idealism will be reaffirmed, and a common ideology evolve after an understanding of why Marx's
ideal failed. The reason is that Marx's ideal, based on releasing the enormous latent energy of
people when they are freed by the opportunity for full self-development, was compromised by the
political structures used as the means to his end. These political structures of communism,
socialism, and fascism corrupted and destroyed the ideal because, instead of freedom for selfdevelopment, individuals were suppressed and frequently brutalized. Collectivism continues to
suppress initiative and suffocate the vitality of people.
An understanding of the reasons for the obscene events of the twentieth century is important and
should lead to recognition that during the twenty-first century it should be different. Most of the
elements of the ideal are in place, and that elusive goal of sustained social progress is very close to
realization.
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As the future value of the wage-earners' money will be substantially affected by whether the twentyfirst century is one of economic common purpose or more violence the institutional investor is
obliged to influence government policy.
The ideal of economic common purpose will be met if the democratic capitalism culture with its
broad wealth distribution is supported by the institutional investors and becomes the norm. The
ideal of a world ruled by law enforced by multilateral actions of the U.N. will require persistent
political action to change the existing aggressive unilateral policies of the United States.
The institutional investor represents the democratic power that can spread democratic capitalism
where the resulting rising standard of living in all parts of the world will gradually build a sense of
interdependence and displace animosities and violence. This world of peace and plenty has always
been the ideal but in the twenty-first century it is attainable.
The institutional investors need to relate their support of democratic capitalism in specific terms to
this ideal but they need to address the damage that ultra-capitalism has done to any sense of
common ideology:
•
Its concentration of wealth and visible excesses has caused social tensions and protest.
•
The instabilities and volatility in the international monetary system have reversed economic
momentum in many emerging economies displacing a growing sense of economic common
purpose with a declining standard of living and social confusion.
•
The continued concentration of wealth and visible excesses of ultra-capitalism has validated the
view of many intellectuals that capitalism is exploitive. This has obscured democratic
capitalism and prevented its support by much of the intellectual community.
•
As the material and spiritual benefits of democratic capitalism become more visible it will
stimulate more support from schools, religions and the intellectual community all vital to
refreshing a sense of common purpose.
Institutional investors can help refine capitalism.
When the institutional investor identifies democratic capitalism as the way to maximize profits they
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have a fiduciary obligation to applying its stockholder voting power to the distribution of surplus, in
investment in more growth and in large dividends. These, in combination, will result in sustained
economic growth and will shift the emphasis from the short-term earnings of ultra-capitalism to the
combination of long-term earnings and annual income from dividends of democratic capitalism.
Drucker points out that wage-earners should now be the "main beneficiaries of the earnings of
capital and of capital gains. But we have no social, political or economic theory that fits what has
already become reality."77 It is the institutional investor's obligation to understand the theory and to
put it into practice, it is democratic capitalism.
In post-capitalist society the wage-earner owns the means of production through the present funding
of future pension benefits, 401-K savings, profit-sharing and stock purchase plans, and ESOPs.
Some of the institutional investors invest union pension money that has an even clearer obligation to
support democratic capitalism. University endowment funds, another source of institutional money,
should have a special position as both the synthesizers of knowledge in this new transformation and
the agents of change through their ownership.
In combination, these representatives of the new capitalism can initiate the transformation from
command-and-control, hierarchial, and frequently fearful to the participation and contribution of the
democratic capitalist culture.
accountable, and governed.
This will involve changing how business is measured, held
In this transformation of society, finance capitalism will undergo its own transformation from
speculation to support of economic growth and new ventures in creative ways. Finance capitalism,
with a mission to support democratic capitalism, can lead developing countries into ways to expand
the legal structure of property and ways to free the morbid capital of the people for investment and
participation in economic growth, a subject explored in depth by author Hernando de Soto.78
If we do not like short-term and greedy, what do we want to change it to? I propose the following
measurement of corporate performance based on management's three-year projections: Sales
growth, earnings per share, and cash flow, the latter divided into additional investment in growth
77
Drucker, op. cit., p. 78.
78
Hernando de Soto, The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs Over Intellect and Fails Everywhere Else (New York: Basic Books, 2000).
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and dividends. A three-year period is selected because it gives time for managers to deliberately
sacrifice the following year's earnings for an investment in greater growth and subsequent profit.
Pragmatically, three years is also the longest time that institutions can accept for meaningful
reporting. Sales growth is the key criterion for job growth, economic growth, full employment, and
improvement in the standard of living.
Cash flow measured against a projection is an excellent way to measure company performance; it is
simple and free of accounting practices that obscure performance. Distribution of surplus through
dividends positions well managed companies in slow-growth industries to be highly regarded for a
consistently high dividend. These companies are currently demeaned and their stock price punished
by Wall Street. Companies distributing a large part of surplus in dividends would provide the stock
market with a needed balance between high sales-growth companies and high yield companies, that
is, large dividends. It is unrealistic to expect all companies, at all times, to have high-sales growth.
Except for start-up or extremely high-growth companies, most companies could pay a 6% dividend,
and some slow-growth companies could pay more. Favorable tax treatment for low- and mediumincome wage-earners would encourage greater use of profit-sharing and stock-purchase plans. The
combination of profit-sharing, tax-protected dividends, and capital appreciation would stimulate
productivity and innovation and make everyone a true capitalist. The resulting addition to
spendable income for the wage-earner would sustain economic prosperity.
During the three-year measurement period stockholders would gain clarity on management
performance by reviewing actual results against projections for the three criteria. The inclusion of
cash as one criterion insures that managers will be accountable for both the profit-and-loss statement
and the balance sheet, on the former, they are measured on sales and costs; on the latter, they are
measured on cash management of such items as inventory and accounts receivable. One benefit of
the technology of the Information Age is the opportunity to reduce the amount of cash tied up in the
business, and in turn improve profits.
A grading system on the democratic capitalism culture.
Once the institutional investors are convinced that their responsibility for long-term value is best
met by the contributions of all in an environment of trust and cooperation, that is, democratic
capitalism, then they will need a grading system that measures how well existing or potential
investments fit the democratic capitalist culture. The following is offered of such a grading system:
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Integrity: Does the company have an explicit commitment to integrity in all business dealings
written into its mission statement or charter? Are trust and cooperation stressed in all educational,
training, and company communications? Are its actions consistent with this mission?
Management Performance: How well has management met its three-year forecasts for sales,
profits, and cash?
Distribution of Surplus: Is the surplus reinvested in new growth and recycled into the economy
through dividends? Does the company pay a 6% dividend? After reinvestment in greater growth,
could the company pay a 6% dividend? Is management responsive to stockholders' influence in
determining the distribution of surplus?
Profit-sharing: Is there a sharing plan common to all and available to all?
Ownership: Is there a stock-purchase plan or ESOP? What percentage of all employees is
participating? What is the percentage of participation projected to be in five and ten years? What
percentage of the company's stock is owned by all employees? What is this percentage projected to
be in five and ten years?
Democratic Capitalist Culture: What is the evidence that the wage-earners are involved,
participating, cooperating, and empowered?
Meritocracy: Does each associate have the opportunity for maximum self-development? What is
the training and education budget calculated as a percentage of sales? What is the trend? How do
associates have their potential tested and identified?
Job Security:
Does the company have a best effort commitmemt to job security requiring
restructure through attrition, retraining, and generous severance?
Board of Directors: Are there three or fewer insiders, including former executives, on the Board?
Is there a diversity of backgrounds among the directors?
Governance Committee: Is this Board committee composed of all outside Directors? Does it
participate in selecting new directors? Is there an annual performance review of the CEO and
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Directors?
Audit Committee: Is this Board committee composed of all outside directors? Does the head of the
company's Internal Audit have a direct reporting responsibility to the Board Audit Committee?
Does the company have a policy of changing outside auditors every five years? What is the
percentage of consulting fees compared to auditing services paid to the outside auditors?
Executive Compensation: Is executive compensation based on an internal logic? Does the CEO
participate in the same profit-sharing formula as all other associates? Do executives take all
bonuses and dividends in stock? Are the executives expected to hold all their stock until retirement?
In how many different compensation plans does the CEO participate?
Corporate Responsibility Committee: Is there a plan to encourage more participation by women
and minorities in management? What is the plan, and what are the results and trends? What is the
company's involvement in education and community activities? Are there any pending
environmental hazards in company operations?
Performance Quality: Has the company utilized the microprocessor based distributed processing
that now allows measurement and accountability in virtually all operations? Are there industry
standards that measure excellence such as ISO or Six Sigma?79 Does the company participate?
What is the performance record compared to expectations? Is there a way to rate overall quality
performance against a peer group? If so, how does the company compare? What is the three-year
trend?
Customers: Is there a method for ascertaining customer loyalty? What is the standard of measure
of customer turnover? How does it compare to management's predictions or a peer group of other
companies?
Associates' Morale: Is there a method for ascertaining associates' attitudes and morale? Can
significant changes in morale be identified by specific location within the company? Is there a large
spread from the best-morale location to the worst?
79
Mike L. Hardy and Richard Schroeder, Six Sigma, The Breakthrough Management Strategy Revolutionizing the World's Top Corporations (New York: Currency,
2000).
- 80 -
Worker Safety: Does the Board review the safety program? What are the total costs of the program,
insurance, and workers compensation awards? What are the trend lines?
Global Companies: Is there a formal policy and plan covering working conditions, including child
labor and prison labor in other countries? Has the company analyzed the Mattel model, and will the
company use similar audit procedures? 80 Are there profit-sharing plans and ownership
opportunities in all global operations?
The Mattel model covers all of the work practices in other countries that provoke criticism. The
model includes unique outside auditing with the prerogative of the auditors to go public with their
findings, if the company is not responsive. Included in the audit is the interviewing of workers by
auditors who are not only fluent in the language of the workers but also in their dialects. These
procedures are emphasized because many company mission statements lack this type of real-world
follow through.
Freedom to perform based on decentralization and worker empowerment depend on discipline
provided by sophisticated audit. Managers have broad delegation to perform, and the Board has the
responsibility to measure and hold management accountable. In democratic capitalism, these broad
delegations by the owners are supported by an audit process that includes all of the elements of the
democratic capitalist profile. A clear understanding of the audit process is necessary for the
institutional investor to judge the quality of the democratic capitalist culture.
The owners of public companies are now protected in theory by independent audit of the company's
financial statements. This limited protection is, however, regularly compromised both by
companies and by auditors. Auditors are often infected with the same greed as the corporations and
they sometimes miss deteriorating circumstances in companies, and this failure severely hurts the
stockholders. Auditors also sometimes compromise their objectivity by promoting their consulting
business that grows larger and more profitable than their financial audit. In late 2000, the SEC
(Securities Exchange Commission) completed a negotiation with the major audit firms and placed
more responsibility on the Audit Committee of companies' Boards to prevent this conflict of
interest.
80
S. Prakesh Seth, Mattel Independent Monitoring Council for Global Manufacturing Principles, Audit Report 1999 (MIMCO), Zicklin School of Business, Baruch
College-CUNY, 17 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
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To refine ultra-capitalism to democratic capitalism will require a thorough understanding of both the
culture and the protocols of democratic capitalism by the institutional investors. It will also require
an understanding of the profound damage done by several decades of ultra-capitalism including:
•
The training of new leaders in many business schools in the culture of ultra-capitalism that treats
workers as cost commodities, and gives exclusive emphasis on stockholders and short-term
earnings.
•
Wealth is concentrated in record amounts, not diffused consistent with the wage-earners'
increased ownership.
•
Instead of the democratic capitalism working culture of trust and cooperation, there is instead
one of distrust, tension and individualism.
•
Job security and a sense of loyalty are treated as anachronistic concepts in ultra-capitalism.
•
Priorities for the distribution of surplus are mergers, acquisitions and stock buybacks, not
growth and dividends.
•
Executive compensation has escalated to hundreds of times the lowest grade. Any internal
compensation logic has been abandoned and the sense of trust and fairness damaged or
destroyed.
•
Profits have been maximized, not by involving, motivating and rewarding all, but rather by
firing people, cutting back on product development, research, training, maintenance, community
activities and accounting tricks.
•
Independent auditors have lost their independence by selling consulting services to ultracapitalism and have been affected by the same escalation of compensation and gains on stock
options.
•
Short-term earnings pressure and a bull market have resulted in companies raising the "hurdle
rate" limiting investment in new programs. The cost of equity has been assumed to be 12% or
more, double what new equity would cost if new stock was actually issued.
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•
Deregulated banks have repetitively pushed so much short-term "hot" money into developing
countries that this excessive liquidity led to imprudent loans for high-risk programs, speculation,
and corruption.
•
These weakened economies were thus set up for attack by speculators, real or perceived, that
drive the "hot" money out of the country and collapse the value of the currency.
•
Wage-arbitragers took advantage of the new lower wages caused by the devaluation to move
manufacturing and, in effect, take advantage of the social and economic damage in order to
improve profits.
•
Global companies in many cases paid barely subsistence wages, ignoring the fact that free trade
can be a universal benefit only when there is sufficient spendable income for reciprocal
purchases.
•
Wall Street executives led the excessive compensation parade, tens of millions of dollars
annually, when deal making encouraged them to switch from advisory fee to percentage of the
deal. Lawyers, accountants and corporate executives were stimulated to participate in ultracapitalism where multi-million dollar annual compensation became ordinary.
Institutional investors can help restructure government.
The institutional investor can help reaffirm idealism and refine capitalism but they also should help
restructure government in support of the superior economic system, democratic capitalism. Fiscal
and monetary policies now lobbied successfully by finance capitalism must be modified to
encourage the spread of profit-sharing, ownership plans, increased use of dividends for wealth
distribution, significant reduction of borrowing for speculation, shift of taxes back from labor to
capital reinstatement of market disciplines necessary to monitor free capital, leadership in the global
codification of finance capitalism, and elimination of economic nationalism.
The long-term economic well being of the institutional investors' constituency depends on the
structure, functions, and efficiency of the United States government. Institutional investors have a
fiduciary responsibility and the potential political power to assure that the government shall promote
the general welfare and support world economic growth.
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At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the United States government was gridlocked between
the collectivists and the finance capitalists. The former regulated things that should be free; the
latter freed things that should be regulated. The collectivists raised total taxes taken and spent
during the twentieth century from 3% to over 30%. Collectivists then tried to micromanage
industry by telling them what ladders to use and which shoes to wear. The finance capitalists, on
the other hand, convinced governments to take the controls off capital which, when coupled with
floating the dollar and suspending market disciplines, resulted in a few years in international
speculation that dwarfed commercial transactions.
It is good government to promulgate information about safe shoes and ladders; it is bad government
to pass laws on those subjects and then micromanage their application.
This power-sharing by the collectivists and the finance capitalists has resulted in an extraordinary
waste of the taxpayers' money and extraordinary concentration of wealth. The extraordinary waste
has resulted in a taxpayers' revolt that prevents critical investments in adequate education for
millions of youths and infrastructure. The extraordinary concentration of wealth contradicts the
new reality that the major source of capital is now the wage-earner. The social tensions caused by
this abandonment of the democratic promise for many, and the accumulation of great wealth for the
few, will, in time, damage or even destroy both democracy and capitalism.
If this view seems too cataclysmic, recall that the Great Depression, only seven decades before,
almost destroyed the U.S. democratic experiment. Consider the killing and misery since the Great
Depression while the world has been learning, the hard way, that more freedom works better than
less freedom. Now, at the beginning of the new century, most of the world is struggling to move to
economic freedom. It will be tragic if the United States fails to provide the leadership towards
economic common purpose and an end to violence.
This power-sharing by the collectivists and the finance capitalists has taken a long time to develop.
Consequently, the corrective lobby power of the people, including efforts by the institutional
investors, will need a program that is comprehensive, integral, and patient. The political process
may happen one step at a time, but each action needs to be within a full context of socio-economic
theory.
Whether the citizen's agenda is developed by the universities, a new or reformed political party, the
institutional investors, or by a collaboration, an enormous political constituency is ready to be
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energized by a program truly developed for the general welfare. This potential political
constituency includes wage-earners, democratic capitalists, entrepreneurs, unions, civic groups,
young students, and all intellectuals who believe in the opportunity for a better world. Young
politicians from either party will recognize this agenda as the way to social progress, and the way to
get elected.
Instead of government by this majority, the United States government during the twentieth century
has evolved into the dysfunctional form described by Aristotle (Chapter 10). Instead of government
representing the will and wisdom of the middle class it is government gridlocked between the
extremes of representing the wealthy or representing the poor.
The agenda for restructuring government includes:
Tax laws: Democratic capitalism needs support by the elimination of double taxation on dividends,
and reduced long-term capital gains taxes for participants in profit-sharing and ownership plans.
Leveraged Speculation: The government should regulate and reduce borrowings for speculation.
Excessive Liquidity: In the control of currency and credit for the general welfare, the government
must prevent excessive liquidity from damaging the economy as ERISA has done and as the
overlending of hot money has done to emerging economies.
Democratic Capitalism Culture: The use of Information Age measurement and accountability
technology can be used to convert bureaucratic government to a process where government people
are responsible for results and citizens are responsible for participation. Huge savings on
administrative costs can be redirected to social programs and tax reduction.
Shift Taxes from Labor to Capital: Reverse the trend since 1980 of moving taxes from capital to
labor. Tax speculation for two benefits: Raise government revenues and mute speculation. In the
last quarter century, payroll taxes increased from 12% to 33% of total government tax revenues.
During this same time capital gains taxes for the wealthy and the average corporate tax rate
declined.81
81
Ted Halstead, "Why Tax Work?" The Nation, April 20, 1998, p. 19.
- 85 -
Standardized Global Banking Practices: America should provide the leadership to discipline the
lending of short-term "hot money" that first overfunds growth and then flees so quickly that it
damages whole economies.
Reinstate Market Disciplines: Free capital depends on the monitoring influence of market forces
which are compromised by insurance, subsidies, and bail-outs.
Lobby Support for FASB: The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) needs help from the
institutional investors in their efforts to insure financial discipline, better disclosure, and integrity in
financial reporting. The institutional investors should neutralize the lobby efforts of ultracapitalism.
Eliminate Corporate Welfare: All types of subsidies should be phased out as intrusions on the free
market with taxpayer money. These include subsidies to farms and oil companies.
Favorable Domestic Tax Rates: To encourage the spread of democratic capitalism, institute
favorable tax rates for companies who qualify in their practices as democratic capitalist.
Eliminate Subsidies and Tax Havens for Multinationals: Capitalism depends on freedom of choice
to produce anything, anywhere. This choice is compromised by tax laws, subsidies, and loan
guarantees.
Favorable Tax Rates to Make Free Trade a Universal Benefit: Free trade depends on freedom to
move operations but it also depends on sufficient spendable income to make reciprocal purchases.
Tax laws should favor companies that meet working condition standards and distribute wealth
through profit-sharing and ownership plans.
Direct Solutions to the Problem: Governments should discriminate in fiscal and monetary policies
between speculation and commerce. For example, when the Federal Reserve Board identified
"excessive exuberance" on the stock market as an inflationary threat, the FED should have raised
brokers' margin requirements from 50% to 75%. Instead the FED raised interest rates that hurt the
economy and ordinary people.
In the 1920s, and again in the 1970s, considerable Congressional interest focused on the benefits of
worker ownership. Favorable tax treatment for ESOPs, along with the later 401-K feature that
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allowed employee savings from pre-tax dollars, resulted from this government interest. Although
these plans in the United States and abroad have grown, they would benefit from additional tax
encouragement.
Institutional investors should prioritize dividends as the most important way to distribute corporate
surplus, second only to reinvestment in growth. Along with an expansion of ownership plans,
dividends could become an important part of broad wealth distribution, and large sustained
dividends would become a reason for rating companies highly. Dividends are wonderfully flexible,
some recipients would spend the added money with a beneficial multiplier effect on the economy;
others would reinvest the dividend as patient capital for the company to grow on. Capital gains
taxes should reward long-term investment and penalize short-term speculation. Zero or modest
capital gains taxes for employees who hold their company stock until retirement would help spread
these plans.
Institutional investors ought to know the answer to the following question: Which benefits the
economy and, in the long term, the stockholder more: Distribution of surplus cash in dividends or
use for stock buy-backs? If the answer is dividends, then why do tax laws favor stock buy-backs?
Institutional investors should influence the tax laws to favor dividends, not stock buy-backs.
Big, successful global companies accumulate enormous amounts of cash. Toyota, at the end of
1998 was sitting on about $20 billion in cash, while the Japanese economy was starved by lack of
consumer demand. At the same time, IBM was hyping its stock with a stock-buy-back program,
$23 billion and climbing. Would not this surplus help the economy and the IBM stockholder better
through distribution as dividends or investment in growth? In early 2001 the Japanese government
changed their laws to allow companies like Toyota to use their hoards of cash for stock buy-backs!
American institutional investors should learn from two decades of Japanese economic stagnation
what the Japanese have yet to learn that consumer demand supported by large dividends is crucial to
sustained economic growth. Stock buybacks have little beneficial multiplier effect on the economy.
Distribution of surplus has a social dimension that deserves more scrutiny than the next quarter's
earnings per share. Presently, these questions are settled on the basis of Wall Street preferences.
Wall Street loves big cash piles that can be used for lucrative deals, an attraction for a takeover
attack, or stock buy-backs. Wall Street does not give dividends a high priority because they are not
quickly translated into higher stock prices.
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To reduce total taxes below 25% of the nation's GDP should be a goal of a citizen's agenda,
supported by the institutional investor, as it forces attention on the enormous waste in present
bureaucracy. This emphasis will force an integration of Information Age technology and finally, it
will force a decentralization of functions to the lowest level with full use of participatory
democracy. It will force recognition that the government cannot waste hundreds of billions of
dollars on persistent mistakes like the Savings and Loan scandal.
This proposed structure of government would be dependent on a philosophical shift to the
democratic belief in the capacity of individuals to participate and contribute freed from the
suffocation of centralized management. This attitude shift will affect not only the size of
government but also how the government involves their workers away from the bureaucracy
described by Alexis de Tocqueville: "It covers the surface of society with a network of small
complicated rules. The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent, and guided ... it does not
tyrannize, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes and stupefies."82
To refine capitalism and restructure government the institutional investor needs to help understand
how to neutralize the effects of ultra-capitalism lobbied for so many years by Wall Street. These
deep root problems include:
•
Profits are privatized for the few with losses nationalized to the taxpayer. The Savings and
Loan fiasco described in Chapter 7 should be required study.
•
Hedge funds are unregulated and regulated banks do not provide the requisite discipline nor are
they disciplined for not doing it. The LTCM fiasco described in Chapter 7 should be required
study.
•
FASB and the SEC are responsible for integrity in financial reporting but ultra-capitalism has
corrupted the process to the extent that famous investor Warren Buffet commented: "CEOs
have come to the view that it is okay to manipulate earnings to satisfy what they believe are
Wall Street's desires."83
82
Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (New York: Random House, 1990) p. 585. Originally published in four volumes between 1835 and 1840.
83
Warren Buffet, Berkshire Hathaway Annual Report, 1998.
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•
Stock options: FASB has recommended various ways to charge profits for options providing
some discipline to the number of shares allowed. Presently options are a "freebie" without cost
to the company or the recipient at time of award. Consequently, the number of options awarded
has grown by several multiples and helped couple the CEO's interest with Wall Street in stock
price and deals, not long term growth.
•
Change Pooling-of-interest accounting: Mergers and acquisitions can be motivated by strategic
reasons, personal greed, or as the only remaining way to keep the stock price high. Pooling-ofinterest accounting allows the acquiring company to ignore the premium paid over the book
value of the acquired company which is then placed on the balance sheet as "goodwill" that has
to be charged against profit over time.
•
Mark derivatives to market: Banks have no obligation to correct their balance sheets to the
current value of derivatives. The simple accounting rule for valuing items on the balance sheet
is "cost or market, whichever is lower." The U.S. government lectures other countries about
better disclosure but it opposes FASB efforts to get better disclosure on derivatives.
•
Level the playing field for restructuring: When ultra-capitalist companies announce a
downsizing or acquisitions, they are able to write off many future costs in one "big bang." The
company defines a continuing "core" business, with the rest subject to "restructuring." It is a
wonderful pill that makes management headaches go away quickly. The SEC is trying to exert
more control, as this pulling in of future costs into a present write-off, lowers the quality of
earnings which should be of significant interest to the institutional investor. A democratic
capitalist company that chooses to "restructure" to a lower level of employment because of
market changes, does so by attrition, retraining, and optional retirement on favorable terms.
This approach takes longer and requires a deliberate investment, but it sustains the trust between
the company and its wage-earners. The government and Wall Street combine to penalize this
approach, as no beneficial tax write-off is allowed.
•
Oppose megamergers. The U.S. government has relaxed opposition to major mergers. In time,
this policy will hurt the economy as many companies use merger and acquisitions as their lastditch effort to sustain or improve their stock price. Many companies with a high P/E multiple
can acquire companies with a lower P/E and by that fact alone improve earnings. This has a
negative effect on the long-term economy and should be a matter of interest to the institutional
investor.
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•
Reinstate Market Disciplines: The bailout of Continental Illinois in 198484 established the "toobig-to-fail" policy. The repeal of Glass-Steagall in 1999 encourages enormous financial service
companies and a "really too big to fail" policy.
The institutional investor can help reposition foreign policy.
If the institutional investor in the U.S. is committed to reaffirm idealism, refine capitalism and
restructure government, then the repositioning of foreign policy will follow. Once institutional
investors recognize the opportunity for the United States to lead the world in economic common
purpose, to eliminate material scarcity and violence, it will be recognized that this mission is
mutually exclusive with political hegemony, an arms race, and a cop-of-the-world posture.
The institutional investor has the potential democratic power to not only counteract the lobbying of
finance capitalism but also to counteract the xenophobic, militaristic, Cold War mentality that now
dominates U.S. foreign policy. Institutional investors have a fiduciary responsibility to do this to
protect their constituencies' investment from war and waste. Institutional investors have a
democratic obligation to do this because the majority of citizens support movement towards
economic common purpose, strengthening of the U.N., and an end to violence.85
American leaders must recognize the new world realities. They include an end of imperialism and
political hegemony by one or two super-powers. New realization should include the shocking
reality that China will challenge the United States as the world's largest economy during the twentyfirst century. This oldest civilization that has been generally free of imperialistic ambitions will
now have the economic resources to engage in an arms race, if that is the direction that the United
States chooses. Several generations of politicians' mistakes have already made a China matter,
Taiwan, into a U.S. concern. Without a countervailing lobbying force these mistakes escalate into
"national honor," where mistakes cannot be admitted, leaving war as the only alternative.
At the beginning of the new century the United States is trying for world political hegemony while
ignoring the need to reposition its military and foreign policies consistent with new realities. The
84
Steven Solomon, The Confidence Game (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995) p. 169.
85
William Grieder, Fortress America: The American Military and the Consequences of Peace (New York: Public Affairs, 1998), pp. 170-1, cites surveys that
substantiate this understanding of public opinion.
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U.S. policies to fight two wars simultaneously, to be cop-of-the-world, while providing weak
support for the U.N. are all counter to the democratic will and wisdom of the American people. It is
not disinterest in foreign policy by the American people, as some suggest, it is the fact that the
political parties do not include it adequately in their political agenda.
A paradigm shift in foreign policy is overdue, and it can be expedited by institutional investors.
Their long-term fiduciary responsibility is to identify those broad historical developments that will
affect the future value of their constituencies' money. Institutional investors who reaffirm the ideal
of social progress through economic common purpose, will consistently oppose foreign policy that
is based on the pessimism that war is inevitable.
William Grieder sees an "opening in history:"
An opportunity to reinvent international relationships and to reach, with distant
societies, a higher plateau of shared goals. Americans have the capacity to help
fashion that different future and lead others to see the potential. Our democratic
values and generous spirit are fully resonant with progressive objectives for the
world at large.86
The institutional investors are positioned to encourage the United States to move to a position of
moral and economic leadership. With a powerful constituency of wage-earners, entrepreneurs,
unions, universities, and democratic capitalists, institutional investors have both the brain power to
develop the ideas and the political power to make it happen. New leaders will absorb the ideas and
become excited by the potential political power. Grieder believes: "The American people are ready
to hear something different. They await a real debate. Politicians who describe the new global
realities honestly and offer plausible, forward-looking responses will find themselves becoming the
party of the future."87
The ideal is a world enjoying a rising standard of living, a developing sense of unity, better health
and education, and all of these combining, in time, to eliminate violence. This is an attainable ideal
only with U.S. leadership, a U.S. that can adjust to these new realities to become a team player, a
86
Ibid., p. 169.
87
Ibid., p. 184.
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strong leader on the team, but still a team player.
Early in the new century, time was running out for the U.S. to modify its position. Lethal finance
imperialism had ravaged Asian economies in 1997 with the resulting social chaos that would
continue for years. In Europe, the United States is determined to lead NATO whose mission of
containing Russia is finished, but the U.S. will not accept that reality. Already included in the
damage is the devastation in Yugoslavia, partly because the U.S. was determined to exclude Russia
from the process, the only country with a long history of influence over the Serbs.
At the beginning of the new century and millennium, a philosophical battle is ongoing in the United
States between those who see the world moving toward the economic common purpose of free
markets greatly expedited by the Information Age, and those who believe, sadly, that the future will
mirror the past. The former see a decline of violence as people enjoy a rising standard of living,
better education, and are united by new technology. The latter see a more violent world as more
people have more terrible weapons, bombs, chemicals, and germs, that can be easily delivered
anywhere. The United States will play a pivotal role in which direction the world turns, and the
institutional investor can be pivotal in determining U.S. policy.
The shocking attack on America on September 11, 2001 would seem to validate the pessimistic
view but it can be turned into a unique opportunity for unity among nations. The world's history of
violence has been primarily among nations. This terrorist threat is shared by all nations and can be
the catalyst for a strong U.N., and the rule of law backed by multilateral force.
Support by the institutional investors for world opportunities from economic freedom would include
a foreign policy that prioritizes economic leadership, maintains a strong military capability,
abandons political hegemony, and participates only in multilateral actions in containing violence.
By the end of the twenty-first century the world's level of affluence, health, and education will
render violence a rare event. Until that time cooperative force must be available.
Institutional investors can be central to the development of the citizen's agenda directed to economic
freedom and the multilateral rule of law. Politicians of both parties should be responsive to this
most effective coupling of democracy and capitalism. Young, more idealistic politicians will
recognize democratic capitalism as the citizen's agenda and the way to a world of peace and plenty
as well as the way to get elected.
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The citizen's agenda for foreign policy would include:
•
A mission to turn the tragedy of the September 11, 2001 attack on America into an opportunity
to unite the world first to eliminate terrorism and then in economic common purpose by building
the power and prestige of the U.N. as the source of international law backed by multilateral
force.
•
A selection of U.N. multilateral action to eliminate terrorism as a strategic alternative more
likely to win the war than unilateral or a U.S.-led coalition. A direct U.S. response is warranted
but the question is not what response is warranted but rather what strategy is winnable.
•
The Moral Imperative: Establish as a major goal of U.S. foreign policy, and indeed of foreign
policies across the globe, the avoidance in this century of the carnage—160 million dead—
caused by conflict in the 20th century.88
•
The Multilateral Imperative: Recognize that the United States must provide leadership to
achieve the objective of reduced carnage but, in doing so, it will not apply its economic,
political, or military power unilaterally, other than in the unlikely circumstances of a defense of
the continental United States, Hawaii, and Alaska.89
•
Europeans should be responsible for their own stability and defense. NATO should be
terminated. Over 117,241 American soldiers including 4,994 in Portugal90 would be brought
home from Europe.
•
In high-risk areas such as the Balkans, the Europeans, including Russia, will become
responsible for containing violence through U.N. action. Any U.S. participation would be
through this U.N. action.
•
The U.S. abandons efforts at political hegemony in Asia, and would encourage Japan, China,
88
Robert S. McNamara, James C. Blight, Wilson's Ghost (New York: BBS, Public Affairs, 2001) p. 5.
89
Robert S. McNamara, James C. Blight, Wilson's Ghost (New York: BBS, Public Affairs, 2001) p. 5.
90
Timothy P. Carney, "Imperial Overstretch," Human Events, August 20, 2001, p. 3. Source: Department of Defense, Washington Headquarters Services, Directorate
for Information, Operations and Reports.
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India, and Indonesia to promote stability and balance in the region. U.S. interests would be
maintained through U.N. actions, 110,695 American troops would come home.91
•
America realizes that a holy war, a jihad, with the Muslims is unwinnable, and that the
memories of reciprocal atrocities will go away slowly through a proactive plan for economic
common purpose resulting in a rising standard of living and better education. Over 11,000
American forces in Arab countries are considered a religious insult and a stimulant to terrorism.
The U.N. should assume responsibility for assuring stability when requested by Arab
governments.
•
U.S. leads in demilitarizing the world, including, in time, the elimination of all nuclear weapons.
The U.S. is by far the world's greatest exporter of weapons of mass destruction and should
reverse position to lead in global disarmament. The military-industrial complex, aided by those
who consider violence an unavoidable part of the human experience, will continue to advocate
massive military spending unless a powerful cohesive force of citizens recognizes the urgency:
"The startling fact is that nuclear arms control is faring worse in the first days of the twenty-first
century than it did in the last days of the Cold War."92
•
The United States encourages the U.N. to reform the Security Council to add more members to
the existing five, U.S., Russia, Great Britain, France and China, and substitutes a 75% vote for
the present veto by any one of the five.
Summary
The problems that stand in the way to twenty-first century peace and plenty have a common
solution: democratic capitalism. The problems are concentrated wealth, terrorism and force, not
law, in the relations among nations. Democratic capitalism maximizes surplus and distributes it
broadly relieving the concentration of wealth impediment. Democratic capitalism has the capacity
to eliminate world material scarcity, elevate and unite people and by demonstrating this gradually
substitute law for force.
91
Ibid.
92
Jonathan Shell, "The Folly of Arms Control," Foreign Affairs, Vol. 79, No. 5 (September/October 2000) p. 27.
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All of these good things are possible if the institutional investors develop and implement a citizen's
agenda. The universities, unions, religions, and civic groups have the same opportunity and
responsibility but only the institutional investors have it as their fiduciary responsibility.
Finance capitalists have always used government privileges to exploit the worker's labor and
concentrate economic and political power. Despite the recent diffusion of capital, "pension
socialism," in Drucker's words, the finance capitalist has learned how to exploit the worker's capital.
Contrary to logic, the diffusion of economic power has not resulted in a diffusion of political power
because finance capitalists have gained control of OPM (other people's money).
Institutional investors are positioned to stop this aberration. They can change how companies are
measured and held accountable; they can influence the government's fiscal and monetary policies;
and they can move the world's dominant economic system from ultra-capitalism to democratic
capitalism.
The promise of Marxism was the development of each individual to full potential, but Marx's theory
in practice was displaced by the suppression of individual freedom. Democratic capitalism is built
on the same economic logic that the whole is maximized as the sum of each individual's reaching
full development. Democratic capitalism, however, is an extrapolation, a refinement of the existing
structure that requires no radical and risky changes. Democratic capitalism should excite
intellectuals for the same reason that Marxism excited them: a promise of secular progress.
However, the same default of the intellectuals, namely their ignorance of economics, governance,
and people, that supported Marxism and resulted in great social damage, however, can prevent
democratic capitalism from becoming the socio-economic-political model for the twenty-first
century. Intellectual fatigue, caused by the failures of the twentieth century, makes enthusiastic
adoption of any plan for secular perfection suspect, particularly any plan with the word "capitalism"
in it. For these reasons, the responsibility of the institutional investor is even greater. They have to
be engaged in and provoke a process that can synthesize the ideal of democratic capitalism as
attainable and can identify the means economic to that end.
The elected representatives of the people in the U.S. democratic republic have abandoned their
commitment to reflecting the will and wisdom of the majority. This was anticipated by the founders
who warned that the natural evolution in government was away from the people and toward
bureaucracy and special privilege. Democratic citizens have to be alert and active in insuring the
limitations of power, but they first need education and a more cohesive political force that
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transcends the gridlocked political parties. The universities and the institutional investors can
collaborate in developing the agenda and applying the political pressure to make it a reality.
If the human species fails again to reach its potential in the new century, future historians will indict
leaders in the United States for sustaining the adversarial, violent world by demonizing countries
like China and Russia. These countries were trying to make the long, difficult move from tyranny
to freedom, from misery to a decent standard of living. They had reason to count on moral and
economic leadership from the United States. If the U.S., instead of providing leadership and
assistance, continues to search for enemies to rationalize its military expenditures, the world will be
doomed to another century of folly and violence, except that now there are more people with more
terrible weapons easily delivered anywhere. The September 11, 2001 attack on America may be the
shocking event that forces the United States to build on the common ground with Russia and China.
We must trust the will and wisdom of the people. Let institutional investors, aided by the
universities, respond to the people with the first workable secular plan in human history that can
eliminate material scarcity worldwide, elevate spirits, unify people, and end the violence.
Definition of this secular plan for unlimited social progress requires the collaboration of many
people with time, energy and optimism. It requires people who can make the connections that
validate the ideal and identify the means. Most of all it requires a profound optimism about the
potential of the average person when provided with the proper circumstances.
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Chapter 4
Needed: New Philosophers For A New Age
The dichotomy will be between "intellectuals" and "managers," the former
concerned with words and ideas, the latter with people and work. To transcend
this dichotomy in a new synthesis will be the central philosophical and
educational challenge for the post-capitalist society.93
—Peter Drucker, 1993, age 83
Comprehensive philosophical and moral doctrines cannot be endorsed by citizens
generally, and they also no longer can, if they ever could, serve as the professed
basis of society.94
—John Rawls, 1993, age 72
Based on a lifetime of experience, celebrity author and consultant Peter Drucker sees society
being transformed by the Information Age to a superior economic system in which workers are
educated, involved, contributory, and rewarded as owners, in other words, democratic capitalism.
Based on a lifetime of study, celebrity author and philosophy professor John Rawls rejected any
universal plan for social progress. Drucker proposed that progress will depend on how well the
thinkers and doers collaborate on the analysis and the action plan. Rawls said it could not be
done. This latter view is disappointing since Rawls, in 1971, had challenged the utilitarians with
his concept of a society based on the rights and opportunities of each individual, including the
93
Peter Drucker, Post-Capitalist Society (New York: Harper Business, 1993) p. 9.
94
John Rawls, Political Liberalism (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993) p. 10.
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least advantaged.95 Phrased in terms of political philosophy, the early Rawls advocated the
greatest individual development of all in a harmonious whole, in other words, democratic
capitalism.
Drucker's wisdom and experience was drawn from many sources; his knowledge was
multidisciplinary, his experience multi-faceted, his area all parts of the world. Rawls' wisdom
was based mainly on single-discipline scholarship practiced inside a university. Drucker
oriented social progress to a superior economic system. Rawls oriented it to a superior political
arrangement.
95
John Rawls, A Theory of Justice (Cambridge, Mass: Belnap Press of Harvard University Press, 1971, revised 1990).
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I share Drucker's optimism, but the new synthesis by new philosophers must not only define the
means to realize the new opportunities but must also neutralize the damage from anti-idealists.
What shall we call this new generation of philosophers? Noosphereans,96 Global Villagers,97
Digital Age philosophers, Information Age philosophers, Post-Post-Modernists, Neo-Idealists,
Post-Capitalists? No matter what we call them, they will celebrate the new century and the new
millennium, examining the convergence of philosophy, religion, science, economics,
governance, and law.
The prophet of convergence, Teilhard de Chardin, was a Jesuit priest, scientist, (paleontologist),
and philosopher of enormous optimism about humans and their potential. Decades before the
advent of the microprocessor and the internet, Teilhard foresaw the world unified by new
technology. Teilhard described the process: "Like the meridians as they approach the poles,
science, philosophy and religion are bound to converge as they draw nearer to the whole."98
Teilhard coupled convergence of science, religion, and philosophy with the emergence of a
vision of all people united by technology and spirit.
Emergence led to the Divine Milieu,99 a perfect world. It represented the fulfillment of human
yearnings since antiquity, now enhanced with a new pragmatism. Teilhard described emergence:
To those who can use their eyes, nothing, not even at the summit of our being, can
escape this flux any longer because it is only definable in increases of
consciousness. The very act by which the fine edge of our minds penetrates the
absolute is a phenomenon, as it were, of emergence.100
What Teilhard foresaw is coming to pass in individual freedom for full development in a
96
"Noosphere," coined by Teilhard de Chardin, means human structures and activities pervading the biosphere.
97
Marshall McLuhan (1911-1969), a professor at the University of Toronto and student of Teilhard de Chardin, used "Global Village" as the locale for unification of
new technology and the human spirit.
98
Teilhard de Chardin, (1881-1955) The Phenomenon of Man (New York: Perennial Library, Harper & Row, 1959) p. 30.
99
Teilhard de Chardin, The Divine Milieu (New York: Perennial Library, Harper & Row Publishers, English edition 1960, first published in Paris, 1957).
100
Teilhard, The Phenomenon of Man, op. cit., p. 220.
- 99 -
harmonious whole that is both the means and the end in this newly practical philosophy. In a
world rapidly becoming unified through computers and telecommunications, the forces for
freedom and a better life are transcending the traditional power structures. The political
abstraction of the sovereignty of the people is becoming a reality; the organization of human
affairs is becoming more democratized.
As more and more of the world's citizens are touched by the unification phenomenon, Teilhard
felt that they would then realize that they were not just "an erratic object in a disjointed world."
On the contrary, Teilhard exclaimed:
I doubt whether there is a more decisive moment for a thinking being than when
the scales fall from his eyes and he discovers that he is not an isolated unit lost in
the cosmic solitudes, and realizes that a universal will to live converges and is
hominized in him.101
Teilhard's works were not published until after his death in 1955. The Catholic Church was not
comfortable with his integration of evolution and creation, although Teilhard said that the
integration would lead to a perfect secular world that would be at the same time the realization of
the divine plan. Teilhard placed humanity in this context:
Man is not the centre of the Universe as once we thought in our simplicity, but
something much more wonderful, the arrow pointing the way to the final
unification of the world in terms of life. Man alone constitutes the last-born, the
freshest, the most complicated, the most subtle of all the successive layers of
life.102
Teilhard's vision was similar to that of Condorcet who had summarized the work of the
Enlightenment at the end of the eighteenth century (Chapter 3). They were both French, both
101
Ibid., p. 34.
102
Ibid., p. 224.
- 100 -
scientists, both shared an optimism about the potential of each person and of society in general.
Condorcet penned much of his optimism while in a French prison getting ready to die during the
Reign of Terror; Teilhard wrote much of his vision while banished from his beloved Paris to
China because of his controversial views. Personal hardship could not suppress the joy of these
two French philosophers in their sense of unity and the possibilities for the human species.
Condorcet's vision was partly realized through the improvement of millions of lives during the
Industrial Revolution. Teilhard's vision has a better chance at fulfillment, for the Information
Age Revolution will exceed the economic growth and productivity of the Industrial Revolution,
and, beyond that, is itself a force for global unification. Both the Industrial Revolution and the
Information Age Revolution added multiples of productivity that give to all the opportunity to
live better. The benefits of the Industrial Revolution, however, were limited because the
traditional power structures continued to dominate in their essentially feudal mode. Financial
gains were made from the productivity of capital investment while foregoing the greater gains
possible through investing in human capital. The command-and-control structure of government
needed to fight wars was applied to commerce. The predatory nature of world imperialism
among the Western powers was copied in the exploitation of workers. Capitalism was strong
enough to improve lives, but it was an imperfect process that sustained the historical
concentration of wealth, and it never approached the potential available through involving the
people and sharing the improvement.
The Information Age revolution is based on cognitive power, not manual labor, and requires the
full involvement of people. Investment in human capital is no longer a choice; it is a necessity.
A company cannot compete without educated, independent-thinking, involved people. Peter
Drucker provided the context for this transformation from ultra-capitalism to democratic
capitalism:
We are trying to straddle the fence, to maintain the traditional mind-set, in which
capital is the key resource and the financier is the boss, while bribing knowledge
workers to be content to remain employees by giving them bonuses and stock
- 101 -
options. Bribing the knowledge workers on whom these industries depend will
simply not work. The key knowledge workers in these businesses will surely
continue to expect to share financially in the fruits of their labor. But the financial
fruits are likely to take much longer to ripen, if they ripen at all. And then,
probably within ten years or so, running a business with (short-term) "shareholder
value" as its first, if not its only, goal and justification will have become
counterproductive. Increasingly, performance in these new knowledge-based
industries will come to depend on running the institution so as to attract, hold, and
motivate knowledge workers. When this can no longer be done by satisfying
knowledge workers' greed, as we are now trying to do, it will have to be done by
satisfying their values, and by giving them social recognition and social power. It
will have to be done by turning them from subordinates into fellow executives,
and from employees, however well paid, into partners.103
In Drucker's extraordinary vision democratic capitalism will no longer be a choice, it will be
mandated by competitive forces. Economic logic will prevail because commerce can no longer
succeed by investing in physical capital only; capital must be invested to involve the people.
Teilhard was similarly excited about human potential, but whereas Marxism had pursued the
goal through collectivism, Teilhard emphasized personal responsibility:
For whatever extraordinary solidarity we have with each other in our development
..., each of us forms, nonetheless, a natural unit charged with his own
responsibilities ... It is we who save ourselves or lose ourselves.104
This individual development within a harmonious whole, with emphasis on personal
responsibility, is the foundation of human affairs beginning in the individual person, reaching to
the family, to the company, to the country, to the world.
103
Peter Drucker, "Beyond the Information Age Revolution," The Atlantic Monthly, Oct. 1999, p. 57.
104
Teilhard, Divine Milieu, op. cit., p. 141.
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The traditional power structure has impeded the spread of democratic capitalism during the past
two centuries. Democratic capitalism grew by demonstrating its economic and social logic, but
it has been a stunted progress with three steps forward, two back. Now, with the Information
Age revolution, democratic capitalism is both an economic necessity and an influence toward
unifying people. Teilhard knew that social progress needed such a focus:
Man will continue to work and to research so long as he is prompted by a
passionate interest. Now this interest is entirely dependent on the conviction,
strictly undemonstrable to science, that the universe has a direction and that it
could, indeed, if we are faithful, it should, result in some sort of irreversible
perfection. Hence comes belief in progress.
As soon as we try to put our dreams into practice, we realize that the problem remains
indeterminate or even insoluble unless, with some partially super-rational intuition, we admit the
convergent properties of the world we belong to. Hence, belief in unity.105
This new age where people come together to improve the human condition deems disconnected
with the reality of a world dominated by violence punctuated by the tragic event of September
11, 2001 and its aftermath. Social progress through unity, however, is still a pragmatic
opportunity. By improving all lives democratic capitalism will gradually build a sense of
interdependence and crowd out the memories of reciprocal atrocities.
105
Ibid., p. 284.
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The world can then be sufficiently unified by economic common purpose to improve all lives
and eliminate violence while simultaneously retaining all of its wonderful cultural diversity. The
momentum will be self-perpetuating as more and more people are educated and lives continue to
improve. Information Age technology makes it possible to reach every nation, every tribe, with
educational materials, including the best practices for good health and the most productive
techniques of agriculture. An extraordinary delivery system is now coming into place. An
enormous library of knowledge, audio and visual, is available that needs only translation. The
costs of this program are large but infinitesimally small when compared to continued misery,
illiteracy, bad health, environmental damage, and war.
The Information Age transformation is presenting fresh opportunities for society. The vision
was captured at mid-century by Teilhard and restated at the end of the century by Peter Drucker.
Although human history has demonstrated both extraordinary progress and inexplicable failure,
these visionaries have seen new opportunities emerging through a collaboration between the
"thinkers" and the "managers." The optimism of the late-eighteenth-century Enlightenment to
find the way to human progress through a scientific truth-searching process has survived two
centuries of disappointment to be restated by new optimists in Enlightenment II, an improved
opportunity through the Information Age transformation.
The Twentieth Century: Celebrity philosophers abandon the search for a comprehensive secular
doctrine.
Many philosophers in the late twentieth century were depressed by the events of the twentieth
century, both the record violence and the failures of top-down reform ideologies: Fascism,
communism, and socialism. Many proclaimed that God is dead, idealism is abandoned, social
progress is a pejorative term, traditional values are illusions, the only thing alive are nihilism,
relativism and for many, despair.
Isaiah Berlin (1904-1998) Fellow of All Souls (Oxford), Fellow of New College, Professor of
Social and Political Theory, and founding president of Wolfson College, won the Erasmus,
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Lippincott, and Agnelli Prizes; as an exponent of the history of ideas, and as a defender of civil
liberties, he received the Jerusalem Prize. In 1957, British Prime Minister Harold MacMillan
recommended Berlin for knighthood for "talking." Although Berlin never wrote a book, he was
a worldwide intellectual celebrity for his lectures and essays. He was also one of the leading
intellectual quitters who proclaimed the Enlightenment to have been wrong, that there is no allencompassing natural order, and that the search for it is a waste of time.
Berlin wrote:
Utopias have their value. Nothing so wonderfully expands the imaginative
horizons of human potential, but as guides to conduct they can prove literally fatal
... If one really believed that a single solution is possible, then surely no cost
would be too high to obtain it; to make mankind just and happy and creative and
harmonious forever, what could be too high a price for that? To make such an
omelet, there is surely no limit to the number of eggs that should be broken. That
was the fate of Lenin or Trotsky, of Mao and for all I know, of Pol Pot.106
Berlin was following the consistent error of social commentators who begin with a top-down
political arrangement, "the notion of the perfect state as the proper goal of our endeavors."107 In
this he was right, for these notions do not work, and do end up with a combination of state
coercion, violence, and many broken eggs.
John Rawls, a Harvard professor of philosophy in the 1960s, published A Theory of Justice,108
material that he had used for years in his courses. This book made Rawls one of America's
leading philosophers, a response that took the author by surprise. Over two hundred thousand
copies of the book have been sold in the United States, and it has been translated into 23
languages. Some five thousand books and articles have been written that deal with Rawls'
106
Isaiah Berlin, (1904-1998)in "The Pursuit of the Ideal," The Proper Study of Mankind (New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux 1997, edited by Henry Hardy and Roger
Hausheen) pp. 12-13.
107
Ibid.
108
op. cit.
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theories in whole or in part.
Twenty-two years later, Rawls wrote Political Liberalism in which he shared Berlin's explicit
rejection of the Enlightenment's view that a process of scientific reasoning could discover the
best order for human governance:
Whether there is or ever was such an Enlightenment project (finding a
philosophical secular doctrine, one founded on reason and yet comprehensive),
we need not consider it; for in any case political liberalism, as I think of it, and
justice, as fairness as a form thereof, has no such ambitions.109
The conclusion of Berlin and Rawls, that it is impossible to organize human affairs rationally is a
reaction to the failure of alternative political systems. Their intellectual fatigue resulted from the
collective failure to perfect society by an elite design: it did not work; ergo, it cannot be done.
The alternative, that it did not work because the structure was wrong and untrained leaders made
huge mistakes, they apparently did not consider. Many intellectuals suffer from a profound
ignorance of ordinary people, of their potential, and of what organization is appropriate to
encourage them to reach their potential. Philosophers like Berlin and Rawls approached the
problem from the wrong end, and came to a wrong conclusion.
Berlin, Rawls, and many others thus recommended that the search for a common ideology be
terminated and replaced with pluralism, defined by Berlin as "the conception that there are many
different ends that men may seek and still be fully rational ... our values are ours, and theirs are
theirs."110
Berlin, Rawls and others who reject a common ideology that can unite and elevate, think in terms
of a political order. Politicians are interested in politics, philosophy professors are interested in
philosophy. Philosophers need an epiphany to see that the answer lies in the economic, not the
109
Ibid., p. xviii.
110
Ibid., p. 9.
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political, system, and that cultural reform will emulate democratic capitalism. It is this superior
economic system that is the solution to the mystery of human progress. New politicians,
motivated and instructed by new philosophers, can then lead the way.
The intellectual default of the left at the time of Marx and Mill was caused by the same factors
that are now causing the default of those like Berlin and Rawls, who abandon the search for
social progress because of insufficient understanding of democratic capitalism and its potential.
Paradoxically, this failure lies in the epistemological process of the philosophers. Many who
have dedicated their life to philosophy start, however, by rejecting knowledge as the power for
social benefit with reasons that are inherently anti-intellectual. The humanists do not understand
that the bridge to science is first to copy the truth-searching process. The humanists also tend not
to be multi-disciplinary in their scholarship, and they habitually communicate and debate only
with those who share their scholarly background. While many liberal-arts professors are
suspicious of the sciences, almost all of them are contemptuous of capitalism. If, as proposed,
democratic capitalism is the "single solution," it does not get scrutiny, both because "single
solutions" in general are rejected and because any form of capitalism as "a single solution"
would be regarded as not worth consideration.
Despite Berlin's rejection of utopian visions, he came close to defining common purpose, for he
described the universal goals that transcend all cultures:
All men sought the satisfaction of basic physical and biological needs, such as
food, shelter, security, and also peace, happiness, justice, the harmonious
development of their natural faculties, truth, and somewhat more vaguely, virtue,
and moral perfection.111
Berlin also understood that the urge to eliminate impediments to reach these goals was inherent
in the human spirit:
111
Berlin, op. cit., p. 245.
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The conviction that once the last obstacles, ignorance and irrationality, alienation
and exploitation, and their individual and social roots, have been eliminated, true
human history, that is universal harmonious cooperation, will at last begin in a
secular form of what is evidently a permanent need of mankind.112
Berlin described specific human needs and the human urge to attain them. While rejecting
utopia, Berlin summarized a structure capable of attaining utopia:
It would follow that the creation of a social structure that would, at the least,
avoid morally intolerable alternatives, and at the most promote active solidarity in
the pursuit of common objectives, may be the best that human beings can be
expected to achieve, if too many varieties of positive action are not to be
repressed, too many equally valid human goals are not to be frustrated.113
The early Berlin thus had described the human need for a common ideology as well as its
specific goals. The goals were all products of an economic system that would have to be honest
and fair in order not to offend many cultural values. Berlin had stepped up to the door marked
"democratic capitalism." He failed to knock and enter because he had neither understanding nor
interest in economics.
Berlin later described his epiphany that "shocked his earlier faith" when he discovered that the
Machiavellian view of "a ruling class of brave, resourceful, intelligent, gifted men" who knew
how to seize opportunities and use them, is incompatible with "Christian virtues of humility,
acceptance of suffering, unworldliness, and the hope for salvation in an after life."114 Berlin was
correct, for these two are incompatible, but why did he treat them as the only alternatives?
Berlin concluded from this limited examination "that not all the supreme values pursued by
112
Berlin, op. cit., Essay: "The Apotheosis of the Romantic Will," p. 578.
113
Ibid.
114
Berlin, op. cit., Essay "The Pursuit of the Ideal", pp. 6-7.
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mankind now and in the past were necessarily compatible with one another."115
Berlin concluded that the universal human aspirations for food, clothing, shelter, security,
happiness, morality, and justice for all, could not be attained by either the Machiavellian
philosophy or Christian secular passivity. They could be attained, however, through a system
that couples brave, resourceful, intelligent people with Christian and other religions' virtues of
honesty and compassion.
Before he declared defeat and retired from the field, in Rawls' earlier work he validated the
concept of social idealism when he proposed a comprehensive doctrine for a just society based
on two principles:
First: Each person is to have an equal right to the most extensive scheme of equal
basic liberties compatible with a similar scheme of liberties for others.116
His first principle was basically a restatement of the social ideal "life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness" according to the American Declaration of Independence. Rawls, like Berlin, came
close to identifying "democratic capitalism" as the common ideology for social justice.
Rawls' second principle proposed that inequalities of wealth and authority are just only when
they are part of a structure that provides benefits to the most disadvantaged: Social and
economic inequalities are to be arranged so that they are reasonably expected to be to everyone's
advantage, and attached to positions and offices open to all.117
Rawls was proposing that the structure provide for a meritocracy of talent and virtue that also
elevates the least advantaged. However, instead of greedy and individualistic meritocracy,
Rawls described individual development of all in a harmonious whole, the fundamental
115
Ibid.
116
Ibid.
117
Rawls, Political Liberalism, op. cit., p. 53.
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governance principle of democratic capitalism.
Rawls' second principle calls attention to how well the weakest link can be motivated and
trained. A structure to encourage the greatest self-development of the least advantaged through
education, training, and motivation, would lead to a comprehensive plan for the greatest
development of all.
Ultra-capitalism, with CEO's annual compensation in the tens and hundreds of millions of
dollars, could not pass Rawls' second principle. Such compensation could not be rationalized as
necessary for the benefit of the least advantaged, and in fact it damages the harmonious
environment in which the least advantaged could prosper.
Rawls' second principle is not merely abstract theory. If it were a guiding principle of American
political life, we would recognize the large overdue obligation to millions of youths who have
not been given the minimum benefits of education, training, and motivation. Many end up on
account of minor drug charges as part of the growing prison population.
Why Rawls abandoned the search for a common ideology is not clear. Perhaps with his
orientation to political solutions, he was discouraged by how thoroughly special interests
contaminated the democratic political process.
Throughout the second half of the twentieth century, philosophic relativism has eroded the
search for any common ideology. Moral relativism rejects any moral value as universal;
epistemological relativity rejects the integrity of knowledge; metaphysical relativism even rejects
reality as objective. Instead of using relativism as part of the epistemological process, some have
treated it as a final answer.
Engineers will remind us that everything has a tolerance, and there are no absolutes. Social
progress, however, requires only improvement, not perfection, in applying the few rules based on
individual freedom and reciprocity among people. This universality is demonstrated by the
similarity among the few rules that are derived from three different points of view: The natural
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order based on innate human characteristics, a rational order designed and tested by human
reason, and the plan for secular perfection common to most religions.
The search for a "comprehensive philosophical doctrine," as Berlin and Rawls called it, had gone
through four phases and at the turn of the twenty-first century it was entering a fifth. The first
phase in Western civilization until the Middle Ages was theological domination. Next the
pendulum then swung too far to confidence in human reason exclusively. The third phase was a
recognition by some that truth-searching is an imperfect process best pursued through
contributions from multiple sources: Reason, experience, tradition, and faith. The Post-Modern
phase was a rejection of the mission, believing that there is no way to reach the illusory secular
goal. The fifth phase, emerging in the new century, is a convergence of the sciences, humanities,
economics, business, law, philosophy, and religion. Drawing on a full range of knowledge,
properly organized, new philosophers can define how the growth, productivity, and unifying
influence of the Information Age in a more democratic world can improve all lives and stop the
violence.
The architecture of knowledge of these new philosophers will have to be both broad and deep:
Broad in that all disciplines must be represented in order to find a holistic plan for human
betterment, deep because the failure thus far of the best thinkers in history demonstrates how
elusive the solutions are. More thinkers, more cooperation, and more interactions are needed to
explain why society still functions at a fraction of its potential, and what steps are necessary to
attain full potential.
The following historical references are part of an understanding of why folly and violence, not
peace and plenty, have dominated human history.
For over four thousand years, force has dominated reason in the relations among nations.
Hammurabi (2113-2081 B.C.) was at first a successful warrior who brought order out of the
incessant local warfare in lower Mesopotamia. He then drew up 285 laws and inscribed them in
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a public place for participation by all. When order had replaced violence and society was based
on justice under law, Hammurabi then addressed the general welfare by investing in
infrastructure, both human and physical. He dug canals, stored grain against famines, lent
money at no interest to stimulate commerce, and prevented exploitation of the weak by the
strong. Broad wealth distribution and better education improved the standard of living and
stimulated momentum in all branches of knowledge:
No one looking at the site of ancient Babylon would suspect that the hot and
dreary wastes along the Euphrates were once the rich and powerful capital of a
civilization that almost created astronomy, added richly to the progress of
medicine, established the science of language, prepared the first great code of law,
taught the Greeks the rudiments of mathematics, physics, and philosophy, gave
the Jews the mythology which they gave to the world, and passed on to the Arabs
part of that scientific and architectural lore with which they aroused the dormant
soul of medieval Europe.118
This exemplary society lasted only a short time. Eight years after Hammurabi's death, Babylon
was invaded and pillaged by the Kassites, a tribe of mountaineers from the northeast border.
These invaders, probably European immigrants, conquered and ruled in ethnic and political
chaos for centuries. Society had advanced quickly, but it was brought back to barbarism even
more quickly. Over the four thousand years since, benevolent governments and the rule of law
have been repeatedly destroyed or displaced by predatory forces.
The only way that predatory actions can be contained is through cooperative force by other
nations. For some such as xenophobic American politicians, however, cooperation implies an
intrusion into "national sovereignty" and is therefore rejected. In other words, the containment
of violence remained unresolved early in the twenty-first century. The attack on America
illuminated for many that unilateral actions are regarded as an arrogant use of power, in contrast
to cooperative action through an improved U.N.
118
Will Durant, The Story of Civilization, Our Oriental Heritage (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1935) Vol. 1, p. 218.
- 112 -
500 BC: Confucius presented a template for the proper organization of human affairs.
Confucius, (552-479 B.C.) a humanist searching for ways to benefit the general welfare,
provided the world with a template for the organization of secular life. The elements of the
template were few and simple. They included the worth of each individual, self-development in
a harmonious whole, broad educational opportunities, civic order in the state, moral discipline in
the individual and family, equality of opportunity, broad wealth distribution, meritocracy in the
selection of leaders, and an end to violence.
Confucius grew up in the state of Lu, part of modern Shantung. He came from a noble family,
but his father died when Confucius was three, so he grew up in poverty. "I was of humble station
when young, that is why I am skilled in menial things."119 He worked first as a tax collector and
started a lifetime of study of the causes of poverty and oppression. His government career
included: Master of Crime (Police Commissioner), Assistant Superintendent of Public Works,
and Chief Magistrate. A renowned public servant and idolized by the people, he nevertheless
grew tired of public service, left office, and spent thirteen years travelling China with his
students.
As a scholar, Confucius had learned of cultures that changed from a tribal society, over which
the influence of spiritual beings was almost total, to a secular society, in which human ingenuity
was challenged to build a better life. Confucius adopted and passed on the view that human
destiny is dependent on one's own good works and thoughtful action.
As a boy and a man, Confucius studied the old master, Lao-Tze, who long before had written a
book in two parts, "the Tao and the Te." Confucius had learned that Tao, the way of the
universe, and Te, the way of life, are one. Human life in its essentially two-some yin and yang is
part of the rhythm of the world. In that cosmic Tao, all the laws of nature form together the
substance of reality. As Aristotle, would later do, Confucius began by studying the nature of
119
Confucius The Analects, IX.8, (London: Penguin Classics, First Translation, 1979), p. 97.
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things.
Confucius' early humanist code was directed to individual self-development, but he also
integrated recognition of a supreme being, "It wasn't until I was fifty that I understood Tien
Ming, the decree of Heaven, one of the things a gentleman stands in awe of."120 Modern religion
and humanism have engaged in a lengthy cold war, each perceiving in the other threats to its
theology. Confucius ignored whether the supreme being were a creator, the ultimate truth, or
society's goal; he focused instead on the common means that illuminate "the way" to temporal
happiness. Beyond that, Confucius cautioned his students not ask about the spirits when they did
not even understand life.
In the Book of Great Learning, Confucius's students passed on his blueprint for temporal society,
basing state and world order on the family unit and on the individual's effort to find knowledge
through a rigorous thought-process based on personal integrity:
The ancients who wished to manifest their clear character to the world would first
bring order to their states. Those who wished to bring order to their states would
first regulate their families. Those who wished to regulate their families would
first cultivate their personal lives. Those who wished to cultivate their personal
lives would first rectify their minds. Those who wished to rectify their minds
would first make their wills sincere. Those who wished to make their wills
sincere would first extend their knowledge. The extension of knowledge consists
in the investigation of things. When things are investigated, knowledge is
extended; when knowledge is extended, the will becomes sincere; when the will is
sincere, the mind is rectified; when the mind is rectified, the personal life is
cultivated; when the personal life is cultivated, the family will be regulated; when
the family is regulated, the state will be in order; and when the state is in order
there will be peace through the world. From the Son of Heaven down to the
common people, all must regard cultivation of the personal life as the root or
120
Ibid., p. 29.
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foundation.121
During a lifetime of teaching and learning, Confucius had outlined this common philosophy of
meritocratic governance based on individual development within a harmonious whole.
However, Confucius specifically addressed the two greatest impediments to social progress:
Concentration of wealth and violence among nations. Confucius proposed broad wealth
distribution as fundamental to social harmony.
The centralization of wealth is the way to scatter the people, and letting it be
scattered among them is the way to collect the people.122
They produce wealth, disliking that it should be thrown away on the ground, but
not wishing to keep it for their own gratification. Disliking idleness, they labor
but not alone with a view for their advantage. In this way, selfish schemes are
repressed and find no way to arise, robbers, filchers and rebellious traitors do not
exist.123
Confucius also knew that a world of law, not violence, begins with trained and virtuous leaders.
He was realistic that the elimination of violence would be a long process.
When the great principle prevails, when the world becomes a republic, they elect
men of talents, virtue, and ability; they talk of sincere agreement and cultivate
universal peace.124 After a state has been ruled for a hundred years by good men,
it is possible to get the better of cruelty and do away with the killing.125
121
Durant, op. cit., p. 668.
122
Ibid., p. 673.
123
Ibid., p. 674.
124
Ibid., p. 673.
125
Confucius, op. cit., xiii 14.
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Chinese philosophers had no confusion about war. Mencius (371-289 B.C.), one of Confucius'
interpreters, denounced war as a crime against humanity. "There are men who say `I am skillful
at marshalling troops, I am skillful at completing a battle.' They are great criminals, there never
has been a good war."126 A prophet of universal love, Mencius marveled that a thief who steals a
pig is condemned and punished, while an emperor who invades and appropriates a kingdom,
enslaving the citizens, is called a hero and made a model to posterity.
The Chinese philosophers over two millennia ago put war into proper context as a scandal and
embarrassment to the human race. It kills, and maims people, and does severe economic
damage. One of the greatest dangers to realizing the benefits of global democratic capitalism is
war. War is a failure of leadership, mistakes made by a few poorly trained men. War will be
eliminated, according to Confucius, only after men and women "of talents, virtue, and ability talk
of sincere agreement and cultivate universal peace."127
350 BC: Aristotle defined the process by which the study of the nature of things would indicate
their full potential and the circumstances required to attain it.
Young Aristotle (384-322 BC) came to Athens in 367 BC to study with Plato, then in his sixties,
for the next twenty years. Aristotle was a model for the Enlightenment process as he used
systematic truth-searching, which he called "logic," to understand the nature of things, which he
called "physics," to understand the principles of social association, which he called "ethics."128
Aristotle's lifetime of scientific investigations came naturally to him because his father was a
doctor. Among his many disciplines Aristotle was a biologist who searched in every growing
process for its essence, purpose, or end, believing that an understanding of the growth potential
was prerequisite to identifying the circumstances necessary for its attainment. With the right
circumstances the process would result in the perfect plant from the best nutrition, and the animal
126
Durant, op. cit., p. 685.
127
Ibid., p. 673.
128
Aristotle, The Politics of Aristotle, edited and translated by Ernest Baker (New York: Oxford University Press, 1958).
- 116 -
reaching potential excellence in its body and limited associative skills. Humans reach full
potential, according to Aristotle, when they achieved excellence in mind, body, and extensive
associative skills.
Aristotle defined the terms and integrated logic, physics, and ethics in the process that could find
the best organization of human affairs, and the necessary circumstances for each and all to reach
full potential. This challenge that Aristotle accepted was the same challenge taken up by the
Enlightenment of the eighteenth century, and it is the contemporary challenge before
Enlightenment II. The challenge is a three-part responsibility: First, for humans to use their
reason to define their full potential individually and collectively; secondly, for humans to use
their reason to define the requisite circumstances and impediments to be eliminated; thirdly, for
the thinkers and managers to cooperate in reforming the circumstances needed to move toward
the ideal. The ultimate good for the human species is still pending the successful application of
this process.
Aristotle had the multi-disciplinary knowledge to define the political structure that could allow
the humans to reach their potential. In his effort to find the best, Aristotle's examinations
included a study of 158 constitutions. The quality of Aristotle's truth-searching was, however,
compromised by the realities of violence among nations and states and by slavery as the mode of
production. For example, Aristotle's pupil Alexander the Great was considered "great" for his
ability to invade and subjugate whole nations killing, raping and pillaging in the process.
Although Aristotle freed his slaves in his will, he defended slavery as a proper institution to be
supported by the state.
Aristotle returned to Athens in 335 BC and set up his Lyceum near Plato's Academy, dedicated
to the examination of nature. Aristotle specifically rejected all three of Plato's waves of reform:
Women with equal rights for leadership, dissolution of the family unit in favor of the state, and
centralized government by guardians directed by philosophers. Aristotle believed that the
emancipation of women was too radical to work. He believed in the family and did not believe
that the state could properly raise children. Aristotle's state structure rejected the oligarchy of the
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rich and the democracy of the poor, believing that government controlled by extremes would be
unable to serve the general welfare. Aristotle favored a state managed by the middle class who,
whether through ability or good fortune, had been given the most conducive circumstances for
their development, and were people most likely to extend to others the opportunities from those
circumstances. Aristotle designed a structure that prevented concentration of power from either
the political right or left, that would leave the state in the control of the "special interests."
Aristotle described the process and state structure through which the human species could reach
potential but his society could not provide the circumstances. Slavery, concentrated wealth,
oppression of women and violence among nations were all so institutionalized in Aristotle's
society that humans were able to reach only a fraction of their potential. Socrates, in Plato's
Republic, had rejected, in theory, the "might is right" theory of government but in practice, the
predatory society had the momentum of history and economic motivation on its side.
Aristotle in Politics129 described the association of people in a state structure that would provide
the circumstances allowing each to reach full potential. In Ethics, Aristotle described how the
individual could seek excellence both in personal talents and in social cooperation. In this goal
of individual development in a harmonious whole, Aristotle proposed four primary elements:
Courage, temperance, justice, and practical reason. In each case, Aristotle emphasized that it
was practical intelligence, wisdom, or "street smarts," that was crucial to moderating the
extremes of the other three attributes. Courage was a virtue, except when rash or foolish;
temperance was a virtue in the enjoyment of pleasures, but not in excess, justice was the
obligation to give each their due, but that elusive goal could be met only when wisdom defined
the "golden mean."
Aristotle, "the philosopher of common sense," likened the pursuit of excellence to learning how
to play the flute. In both cases, it takes training and practice and the first effort will inevitably
prove inexpert. This seems obvious except in contemporary society, where do young people
train and practice making their contributions to a harmonious whole?
129
Ibid.
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1250 AD: Thomas Aquinas attempted to combine knowledge from faith and reason.
Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) undertook the task of integrating knowledge from many cultures
drawing on Jewish and Muslim philosophers as well as Christian. The common denominators of
these philosophers were prodigious work covering the multi-disciplinary spectrum of science,
humanities, medicine, philosophy and religion with profound study of Aristotle referred to as
"The Philosopher." Included in this assimilation were the works of Muslim philosopher
Avicenna (Abu Ali al-Husein ibn Sina) (980-1037 AD), Muslim philosopher Averröes (Abu alWalid Muhammad ibn Rusho) (1126-1198 AD), and Jewish philosopher Maimonides (11351204 AD).
Avicenna, who lived in what is now Iran and Iraq, wrote over 100 books, including medical texts
that were used in Europe for the next 500 years. Averröes was also a renowned physician and
author of a medical text in Latin. Like his father and grandfather before him, Averröes was also
the Chief Justice of Cordoba, Spain. He was known as the "Commentator" for his knowledge of
Aristotle, as he had been commissioned by the Emir to write a clear exposition of Aristotle's
works.
Maimonides, called Moses, was born nine years after Averröes in Cordoba, also the son of a
scholar, physician and judge. Maimonides and his family left Spain after the invading Berbers
demanded that all convert to Islam. Maimonides later became a famous rabbi and a scholar in
biblical and rabbinical literature, medicine, mathematics, astronomy, and philosophy. As
Aquinas would attempt to do a century later, Maimonides attempted to reconcile Greek
philosophy with religious dogma and provoked a battle among Jews between strict orthodoxy
and philosophy similar to battles among the Christians and Muslims. Violence and book burning
in this struggle was common to all religions.
These philosophers of the eleventh to thirteenth centuries were pioneering the bridging of their
faiths and reason. Harmonizing the beliefs of Aristotle with the revealed truths of their religions
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was challenging as most religions believed that the world was created and the soul immortal,
while Aristotle believed the opposite. It is not surprising that the works of these thinkers, and
Aquinas after them, were attacked, but they were eventually accepted by that part of religious
communities concerned with the temporal human condition who recognized that there was little
contradiction between the advice of religion about secular conduct and the Aristotelian process.
The necessity in all cases was to determine the nature of things, animals, and humans; to
determine the limits of the growing process; and then to identify the circumstances that wold
allow growth to full potential. The circumstances included, for example, visions of brotherly and
sisterly love and unity of purpose that were both religious and philosophical.
Aquinas made a major contribution by packaging the illuminations from so many brilliant people
from so many different cultures. It was a good start in bridging faith and reason, a task still as
important and still not complete. Aquinas' Summa helped free the minds to be applied to
improving the human condition but it was still too early to propose individual autonomy and
economic freedom for all. Sixteen hundred years after Aristotle, Aquinas repeated the defense of
slavery as a proper institution deserving support from the establishment, the subservience of
women, accepted violence among nations, but added death for heresy to the list of barbaric
practices.
Early-Seventeenth Century: French and English philosophers pursue human betterment through
the power of knowledge.
Rene Descartes (1596-1650), French mathematician and philosopher, and Francis Bacon (15611626), English statesman and philosopher, shared the mission of applying the power of
knowledge to improving the human condition. Descartes and Bacon felt that the material then
presented by the educational system was confused, and the process by which it was attained was
badly flawed. Having restated their belief in the ideal of social progress, both men
recommended ways to improve the process.
Rene Descartes was the son of a prosperous lawyer, educated by the Jesuits, studied and traveled
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in many parts of Europe. In 1628, he moved to Holland where he spent most of his life but died
in Sweden where he had gone to be tutor to the Queen.
Descartes was part of the freeing of the mind from theological domination at the same time that
his work was inhibited by the authority of the church. Many were revolting against the
Aristotelian-Scholastic curriculum arrived at by a confusion of reason and ecclesiastical
authority. The assimilation done several centuries earlier by Aquinas had been used primarily
for the education of clerics, now it was being attacked by reformers and skeptics.
Recognition that truth is not certain and that the process is relative and subjective, was as old as
philosophy itself, but now the church used the skeptics to support their authority with the
argument that if truth could not be reliably ascertained by reason then it had to be provided by
faith.
Descartes tried to improve on both Plato and Aristotle with extensive efforts in both
metaphysics, including proofs of the existence of God, and physics, with investigations into an
amazing variety of things, including crop failures, refraction in optics, and the effect of altitude
on atmospheric pressure. Descartes' contemporary, English philosopher Thomas Hobbes,
thought that Descartes should have stuck to physics as his metaphysics were confused by the
separation of mind and body.
Descartes undertook to build an architecture for finding truth and accumulating knowledge in the
belief that great benefits would accrue to society from humans' becoming "the masters and
professors of nature." Nevertheless he straddled science and religion by affirming that reason
"does not prevent us from believing matters that have been divinely revealed as being more
certain than our surest knowledge."
Like Descartes, Galileo (1564-1642) also affirmed fidelity to the authority of the church, but his
material on the validity of the Copernican theory was so thorough and convincing that he was
condemned in 1628 and spent the rest of his life under house arrest. When Descartes became
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aware of this he hid a major work from publication until after his death.130
Descartes proceeded to outline a structure for truth-searching accompanied by moral maxims to
live by. His Discourse on Method includes "accepting nothing as true which I did not clearly
recognize to be so," "to divide up each of the difficulties that I examined into as many parts as
possible," "to carry on my reflections in due order," meaning to conquer the simple, then to move
on to the more difficult, a building-block technique, and "to make examinations so complete and
reviews so general that I should be certain of having omitted nothing."131
Although Descartes is still criticized as the father of rationalism, that is, the belief in reason as
the exclusive source of knowledge, he started his search for truth on values dependent on not
only reason but on experience and tradition.
Before commencing to rebuild the house which we inhabit, to pull it down and
provide materials and an architect, unless we have also provided ourselves with
some other house where we can be comfortably lodged during the time of
rebuilding, so in order that I should not remain irresolute in my actions while
reason obliged me to be so in my judgments, and that I might not omit to carry on
my life as happily as I could, I formed for myself a code of morals for the time
being, which did not consist of more than three or four maxims, which maxims I
should like to enumerate to you.
Among Descartes' maxims was "to obey the laws and customs of my country, adhering
constantly to the religion in which by God's grace I had been instructed since my childhood."132
Descartes is most famous for, "I think, therefore, I am," however, his dedication was more truthsearching than skeptical.
130
Rene Descartes, (1596-1650) Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason and Seeking the Truth in the Sciences (New York: Penguin Books, 1968)
p. 641.
131
Ibid., p. 16, 19, 20.
132
Ibid., p. 18.
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I did not wish to imitate the skeptics who doubted only for the sake of doubting,
and intended to remain always irresolute. On the contrary, my whole purpose was
to achieve greater certainty and to reject the loose earth and sand in favor of rock
and clay.133
Descartes combined in his career the work of a mathematician, philosopher, and teacher.
Englishman Francis Bacon was a philosopher, lawyer and politician. He worked for years on the
Great Instauration, his statement on how to renew and restore the method for accumulating
knowledge. In 1620, Bacon published Novum Organum, featuring his new experimental method
of confirming truth. Bacon, the humanist and author, pursued a busy career and became a
member of Parliament in 1584. Between 1607 and 1618, he held successively higher positions
up to Lord Chancellor, but he was then disgraced and exiled from the court by his political
enemies who charged him with a conflict of interest in his acceptance of gifts.
Bacon faulted education both for the process and the content arguing that its mission was not the
improvement of society through intelligent leadership or informed citizenry. His Novum
Organon was a direct attack on the educational establishment in which Aristotle's Organon was
a standard text. The curriculum that reached back centuries was directed to clerical education,
and Bacon thought that it mixed religion and reason to the confusion of both. As a result,
university work was increasingly irrelevant for the rapidly growing population of young men in
training for politics and commerce.
While Bacon's attack was on the Aristotelian curriculum as interpreted in seventeenth-century
Scholasticism, his influence was in fact a return to a more authentically Aristotelian investigation
of things in search of the essence, the growth potential, the favorable circumstances, and the
impediments. Bacon agreed with the inductive approach of learning from experience, testing the
resulting generalizations, and then moving onto higher levels of generalization. Bacon
accommodated relativity and subjectivity in truth-seeking, by building a process that was
133
Ibid.
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dynamic, collaborative, and cumulative: Dynamic because it was a reiterative process that was
constantly modified by new or improved knowledge; collaborative because it required
representatives from all scholarly disciplines and diverse cultures; cumulative because it was a
building-block process in which each verified block provided a new level on which to build new
knowledge.
Bacon attacked superficiality in the thought process:
The primary notions of things which the mind readily and passively imbibes,
stores up and accumulates, are false, confused, and over-hastily abstracted from
the facts ... whence it follows that the entire fabric of human reason which we
employ in the inquisition of nature, is badly put together and built up, like some
magnificent structure without any foundation.134
Let him correct by seasonable patience and due delay the depraved and deeprooted habits of his mind; and when all this is done and he has begun to be his
own master, let him use his own judgment.135
Bacon presented two books of Aphorisms Concerning the Interpretation of Nature and The
Kingdom of Man. The first book contained over 100 aphorisms, many of them still relevant for
contemporary philosophers. Bacon insisted, for example, that the end must be clear before
defining the means.136
It is not possible to run the course right when the goal itself has not been rightly
placed.137
134
Francis Bacon, (1561-1626) "The Great Instauration," The English Philosophers From Bacon to Mill (New York: Modern Library, Random House, 1939), p. 5.
135
Ibid., p. 27.
136
Ibid., Aphorism, lxxxi, p. 56.
137
Ibid., Aphorism, lxxxi, p. 57.
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Bacon, who warned against excessive abstract theory, was the intellectual ancestor of David
Hume in anchoring reason to what works in practice:
Roads to human power and to human knowledge lie close together, and are nearly
the same, nevertheless, on account of the pernicious and inveterate habit of
dwelling on abstractions, it is safer to begin and raise the sciences from those
foundations which have relation to practice and let the active part itself be as the
seal which prints and determines the contemplative counterpart.138
For Bacon, the final step in the process was experimental verification, "a course of experiment
orderly conducted and well built up."139
Bacon's repeated theme was that the ability of the human species to maximize opportunities is
dependent on the quality of the knowledge. Bacon emphasized the axiom that errors of
knowledge will lead to mistakes in operation. The process fails again when mistakes in
operation lead to new theory instead of a search for the original error. When the original theory
was superficial and poorly thought out, feedback from the inevitable mistakes in operation
analyzed in a similarly faulty process, then leads to additional faulty theory.
Bacon reasoned from nature in order to find appropriate rules for human action:
Human knowledge and human power meet in one; for where the cause is not
known, the effect cannot be produced. Nature to be commanded must be obeyed,
and that which in contemplation is as the cause is in operation as the rule.140
Between Descartes and Bacon, an architecture for the development, organization, and validation
of knowledge, started long before by Aristotle, was refined. Like truth itself, the architecture had
138
Ibid., Second book, Aphorism iv, p. 89.
139
Ibid., Aphorism lxxxii, p. 57.
140
Ibid., Aphorism iii, p. 28.
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to be constantly analyzed and refined. The process had worked well in the sciences, but it has
had only partial success in the governance of human affairs, where reason has had to battle
traditional domination by predatory forces and autocratic rule.
After Descartes and Bacon, Western intellectual development followed two imprecise paths, one
in the Greek tradition, where rational contemplation of the ultimate truth of things is "the highest
attainment,"141 the other in the Roman tradition, where the practical aspects of human existence
are "a larger and more significant whole in relation to whole ends. Our philosophic
apprehensions should be viewed as subordinate though still very valuable means."142 This
difference could also be summarized, with a large tolerance for error, as the difference between
the continental rationalists, such as Descartes, and the English empiricists, such as Bacon,
Hobbes, and Locke.
Eighteenth Century: The Enlightenment uses the systematic thought process of Aristotle,
Descartes, and Bacon to define the means for the best organization for human affairs.
The meritocracy of Confucius did not exist in Western culture. In Aristotle's society the mode of
production was slave-based, in Aquinas' it was serfdom. Until the eighteenth century, Western
society remained largely static with little opportunity for either freedom or mobility for the
majority. Many people were persecuted or killed for religious beliefs, many were imprisoned for
writing what they believed to be true.
All of this began to change during the life of Francois Marie Arouet Voltaire (1694-1778) and
his protégé Condorcet. Voltaire energized the intellectual movement in Europe toward the
freedom to think and to act. In his Tenth Stage (see Chapter 3), Condorcet summarized the just
society as defined by the Enlightenment.
The son of an affluent family, Voltaire studied with sons of the nobility at the Jesuit College in
141
Edwin A. Burtt, Introduction to the English Philosophers From Bacon to Mill (New York: Modern Library 1939, renewed 1967) p. xiii.
142
Ibid.
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Paris. Soon after, Voltaire began his attacks in plays, prose, and poems and he came under
constant surveillance and threat. Francois Marie Arouet was not known as Voltaire until his first
time in the Bastille in 1718. After another episode, instead of the Bastille, Voltaire was banished
to England in 1726. During his three years in England, Voltaire refined his social philosophy
and broadened his knowledge through study of John Locke's empiricism and theory of
inalienable rights for all, and of Newton's extraordinary contributions to science. The relative
freedom of individuals under the English constitutional monarchy impressed Voltaire, as did the
growing affluence resulting from the early stages of the Industrial Revolution. In England at that
time, commerce was respected, not demeaned, by a growing middle class and even some of the
nobility.
Voltaire returned to the Continent with a broadened understanding of potential social progress
based on the integration of scientific advances, individual freedom, economic freedom, and
political freedom. In combination, these seemed to be the circumstances that gave promise for
humans to reach their potential. The progress that Voltaire observed in England was relative, as
wealth in England was still concentrated and the workers crowed into the cities in poor living
conditions not as good as some French serfs. Voltaire later broadened his knowledge and
experience with several years living at the court of Frederick William II, King of Prussia with
whom Voltaire had a difficult relationship for over forty years.
Voltaire and others of the Enlightenment in their wide-ranging curiosity discovered the Chinese
culture and Confucius. Voltaire developed a great respect for the philosophy and structure of
China and wrote extensively about their society. He called China: "the finest, the most ancient,
the most extensive, the most populous and well-regulated kingdom on earth."143 Although much
of the knowledge of the Chinese came by way of the Jesuits, the Enlightenment presented the
Confucian ethic as a moral code for secular society developed from reason and experience.
Most thinkers of the French Enlightenment, conditioned by their antagonism towards the
oppressive church-state structure, were either deists or atheists. Others, like the German
143
Will and Ariel Durant, The Story of Civilization, Volume 9, The Age of Voltaire (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1965) p. 505.
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Immanuel Kant, however, saw commonality between the morality developed for the secular
existence from reason and that derived from religion. Kant felt that reason and religion were
complementary, not competitive.144
The Enlightenment's most ambitious production was The Encyclopédie, an enormous effort to
capture and codify all knowledge. While many made contributions, the two who worked the
longest and the hardest under constant harassment were Denis Diderot (1713-1784) and Jean Le
Rone d'Alembert (1717-1783). Diderot came from a middle-class family and studied at the
Jesuit College in Paris. He gave up early thoughts of being a priest and chose the life of a
thinker and writer. D'Alembert was abandoned as an infant, raised by a step-mother, and studied
at the University of Paris. He also dedicated his life to intellectual pursuits, usually living in
poverty. A scientist, he did important work in mathematics and calculus; his d'Alembert
Principle" became a well-known theorem helpful in mechanical calculations. Most of the
Enlightenment, including Voltaire, were scientists or involved in scientific investigations. They
followed the Aristotelian tradition of studying the nature of things, a discipline that they then
carried over into the analysis of society. From an understanding of the nature and potential of
any growing process, they could then identify the circumstances necessary for an organism to
reach its full potential, including the human species.
The French authors of The Encyclopédie honored those from whose intellectual momentum they
derived courage and information. D'Alembert, for example, observed: "At the head of these
illustrious personages should be placed the immortal Chancellor of England, Francis Bacon,
whose works, so justly esteemed deserve our study even more than our praise."145
D'Alembert and Diderot were in regular communication with Voltaire and well schooled in
Newton's scientific advances beyond those of Descartes, who, they felt, had been hampered by
religious persecution or, at least, critical attention. D'Alembert nevertheless described the
movement toward freedom stimulated by Descartes, who dared to show to alert mines how to
144
Kant Selections, "What is Enlightenment!" Edited by Lewis White Beck (New York: A Scribner/MacMillan book, 1988).
145
Durants, op. cit., p. 637.
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free themselves from the yoke of Scholasticism, opinion, authority, in a word, from prejudice
and barbarism, and by this revolt, of which we today gather the fruits he rendered to philosophy
a service perhaps more difficult than all those that it owes to his renowned successors.146
Claude Adrien Helvétius (1715-1771) was one of twenty children of a physician to the king and
queen of France, a connection that later kept Helvétius out of prison. Helvétius studied with the
Jesuits and, inspired by Voltaire whom he met shortly after college, dedicated his life to study
and writing. Helvétius spent many years at home with his family writing De l'Espirit (On
Intelligence). The men of the Enlightenment were well versed in economics and included
material on the Phisiocrats and laissez-faire theory in the Encyclopédie. Helvétius was part of
the111 Enlightenment but was also a wealthy man, who wrote with special authority on the
persistent impediment of concentrated wealth:
The almost universal unhappiness of men and nations arises from the
imperfections of their laws, and the too unequal partition of their riches. There
are in most kingdoms only two classes of citizens, one of which wants
necessaries, while the other riots in superfluities.
If the corruption of the people in power is never more manifest than in the ages of
the greatest luxury, it is because in those ages the riches of a nation are collected
into the smallest number of hands.147
In 2001, in the United States, as the damage from speculating with borrowed money is becoming
more apparent, the feeding frenzy in executive compensation worsens, and the concentration of
wealth breaks new records, Helvétius' words have a threatening echo.
The constant battle and occasional imprisonment over the material in the Encyclopédie exhausted
Diderot and d'Alembert and eventually caused them to withdraw but not before the first volume
146
Ibid., p. 637.
147
Ibid., p. 689.
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of the Encyclopédie was published in 1765.
Shortly before his death in prison during the Reign of Terror, the last of the eighteenth-century
French Enlightenment philosophers, the Marquis de Condorcet, summarized the French
architecture of the rational ordering in human affairs. Condorcet saw the accumulation of
knowledge, both scientific and social, as a step-process in which matters requiring profound
thought by genius are captured and made simple for many. He saw the process expedited by
commercial progress and education. As the standard of living improved, more people would
become educated. Condorcet emphasized the necessity of including women in this process, to
form a broader base of world citizenry with sufficient education to absorb the contributions of
their predecessors. From this broader base, the probabilities would be improved that new genius,
whether male or female, would extend knowledge to a new level. This is the way it has worked
in science, but to the shame of the intellectual community, it is not the way it has worked to
define the rational organization in human affairs. Condorcet described this intellectual ratcheting
process:
The truths whose discovery has cost the most effort, which at first could be
grasped only by men capable of profound thought, are soon carried further and
proved by methods that are no longer beyond the reach of ordinary intelligence.
If the methods that lead to new combinations are exhausted, if their application to
problems not yet solved requires labors that exceed the time or the capacity of
scholars, soon more general methods, simpler means, come to open a new avenue
for genius.
We shall point out how more universal education in each country, by giving more
people the elementary knowledge that can inspire them with a taste for more
advanced study and give them the capacity for making progress of it, can add to
such hopes; how these hopes increase even more, if a more general prosperity
permits a greater number of individuals to pursue studies, since at present, in the
most enlightened countries, hardly a fiftieth part of those to whom nature has
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given talent receive the education necessary to make use of their talents.148
The broad-based educational opportunities for both men and women envisaged by Condorcet
have come to pass in the mature economies. The building-block process in identifying,
verifying, codifying and promulgating knowledge applicable to improving the human condition,
however, remains to be done. This is the mission of new philosophers of Enlightenment II to
benefit from Information Age technology to identify the best organization for human affairs on a
worldwide basis.
Voltaire, and in effect the whole Enlightenment, was honored for his impact on French society
when he returned to a hero's welcome in Paris shortly before his death in 1778. The ability of
the Enlightenment to move from abstract theory to action was demonstrated when Voltaire's
passion for toleration was reflected later in an edict on toleration by King Louis XVI in 1787.
Although other reforms of the state were proceeding, based on the advice of Condorcet's friend
Turgot, the king's financial minister, Louis XVI unfortunately vacillated once too often between
reform and the Queen's and nobles' defense of privilege. The revolution became bloody and
ugly.
148
Marquis de Condorcet, final chapter of The Sketch. "The Tenth Stage, the Future Progress of the Human Mind" from Edward Godell's The Noble Philosopher
(Buffalo, New York: Prometheus Books, 1994) p. 236.
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Eighteenth Century: Adam Smith proposes economic freedom as the key to eliminating
worldwide material scarcity.
In 1776, the American Declaration of Independence proclaimed the mission of "life, liberty, and
the pursuit of happiness." In the same year, Adam Smith described the means to this end:
Economic freedom through private property; competition; involved, well paid workers; and the
technology of the Industrial Revolution. This combination would drive costs and prices lower,
opening up new markets whose additional volume would add more wage-earners, more
purchases, and even lower prices. Smith felt that self-perpetuating growth depended on surplus
being distributed to the wage-earner for purchases, rather than to the wealthy whose purchase of
luxuries and portfolio investments had little economic benefit. Smith also specified control of
the "prodigals and projectors" to prevent them from deflecting capital to speculation, thereby
making money high-cost, scarce, volatile, and impatient, all inversions of the money needed to
make Smith's vision work.
Adam Smith was very much a part of the Enlightenment. Drawing on his background in moral
philosophy, the study of the Phisiocrats and their laissez-faire theories in France, and an
understanding of the productivity potential of the Industrial Revolution, he proposed in Wealth of
Nations149 in 1776 an economic system capable of eliminating material scarcity. For the first
time in human history, there was an alternative to nations and people battling over finite
resources.
The human duality of individual appetite and ambition in combination with the instinct for social
cooperation could be found by following Aristotle's study of the nature of things. With Smith's
proposed economic system, the circumstances changed radically. Instead of predatory appetites
trampling on social cohesion, there was a system that worked best through cooperation. In
theory, the economic motivation for violence among nations and people was over. In theory, the
productivity and growth potential of this new economic system would distribute wealth broadly.
The two major impediments to improving the human condition were eliminated. Nations would
149
Adam Smith, An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (New York: Modern Library, 1937, first published 1776).
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no longer have to use force against other nations to improve the circumstances of their people;
instead they would improve their circumstances cooperatively through free trade. No longer did
the few have to concentrate wealth by impoverishing the many; all would gain from the
cooperative growth of the new system.
Following the Industrial Revolution, the progression of knowledge among an increasing number
of educated women and men became possible when democratic opportunities made a free and
comfortable life available for many instead of only for the few. Until the eighteenth century, the
motivation for gathering knowledge about governing human affairs had been constricted by the
realities of poverty and social immobility. Many had been destined to an existence closer to the
animal than to the noble, because a rational order was impeded by predatory forces. This
changed gradually as more freedom was forced into the process.
In the Western world, economic freedom began to demonstrate its power to improve lives. The
intellectual community had available an epistemological process initiated by Aristotle
assimilated by Aquinas, refined by the architecture of Descartes and Bacon, plus the ratchet
effect of accelerating knowledge described by Condorcet. The intellectual community had the
benefit of Condorcet's summary of the Enlightenment's agenda for a just and prosperous
society,150 Smith's summary of the economic system that could eliminate material scarcity, and
the American Declaration of Independence that proclaimed the right to "life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness," for all.
The "thinkers" now had an architecture of knowledge that defined the ideal of eliminating
material scarcity and violence along with specific definition of how to couple democracy and
capitalism as the means to that end, and finally considerable verifications that these means,
competently applied, could reach that ideal.
Nineteenth Century: Karl Marx and John Stuart Mill propose ways that Smith's economic
system could reach full potential by involving and motivating the workers.
150
Ibid., pp. 225-251.
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Like Smith before them, Marx and Mill followed the Aristotelian process by studying the nature
of people at work and recognized that the growing industrial process could reach full potential
only by changing the circumstances, the work culture, the nature of things.
By the mid-nineteenth century, capitalism had demonstrated its ability to improve lives, but it
was functioning at only a fraction of its potential. In 1848, Karl Marx identified the reason:
Capitalism had enormous productive capacity to eliminate material scarcity worldwide, but
capitalism's distribution of surplus was so concentrated that most people did not have the money
to buy what capitalism could produce.
Marx pointed out that during an economic decline, this flaw of capitalism accelerated the
downward cycle, as lost jobs and wage cuts further reduced demand. Marx believed that worker
ownership was the solution because workers would be motivated to maximize surplus that would
then be distributed broadly. Marx felt that this superior economic system would supersede
capitalism.
John Stuart Mill, in the same year 1848, in the same city, London, also proposed worker
ownership as the method of balancing capitalism's demand with supply. Mill, however, had a
better understanding of the management of change than did Marx, so he grafted his refinements
onto the existing system of private property and competition. By combining management skills
with more productive workers in a new work culture, Mill would reach the same end but avoided
Marx's structural mistakes that later caused such tragic results.151
John Stuart Mill had been superbly educated in many disciplines. As a teenager, he discussed
economics with David Ricardo, and social theories with Jeremy Bentham, who were both friends
of his father. Mill was also a man of experience, having worked for the East India Company and
served in Parliament.
151
John Stuart Mill, Principles of Political Economy, With Some of Their Applications to Social Philosophers (Fairfield, NJ: Augustus M. Kelley, 1987).
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Marx, building on the idealism of his German predecessors, Kant and Hegel, added his theory of
dialectical materialism, and concluded that social progress would depend on a superior economic
system that would distribute wealth broadly and lead to a classless, non-alienated society. Marx
spent years, most of it holed up by himself in the library of the British Museum, integrating his
economic theories with his social theories. Marx had little practical experience; he worked for a
living only occasionally as a writer or journalist.
Mill had been trained like a scientist in rigorous truth-searching protocols. He understood the
management of change, and from this perspective he proposed profit-sharing and worker
ownership as a democratic extrapolation of capitalism that could solve the problem of the
maldistribution of wealth. Marx, however, was an angry radical with only vague ideas about
how to reach his ideal. Knowing little about the management of change, he proposed solutions
that would tear down the whole structure, political, economic, and religious.
Subsequently, reformers proved as a group to be closer to Marx's profile than to Mill's; they too
suffered from limited experience and inadequate knowledge of finance and economics. They
were neither equipped nor trained to present an agenda for reform that had much chance for
success. The intellectual left had ignored the Aristotelian process, the architecture of Descartes
and Bacon, the economics of Smith, and Condorcet's summary of the Enlightenment. Instead,
they followed Marx's shallow, emotional, unworkable solutions. This enormous process failure
led the world into a wrong turn with tragic results. Throughout the twentieth century,
governments would kill 160 million people, mostly innocent civilians.152
Both Adam Smith and John Stuart Mill made success of the economic democratic system
conditional on promotion of the general welfare by a supportive government and the
subordination of the financial system to the building and selling of things. Although this
superior economic system was defined with great specificity, it was neither sufficiently
examined by academia nor offered for examination to students who would later lead companies
and countries. As Marx observed, the intellectual right supports the existing economic system
152
R. J. Rummel, Death By Government (New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishing, 1994) p. 13.
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and tends to sustain it beyond its economic logic. During this time, the intellectual right did
defend the status quo while the intellectual left sought radical alternatives. The correct answer,
democratic capitalism, was left to the trial-and-error efforts of managers with a democratic
vision.
Marx and Mill had different ways to put in place the circumstances conductive for each
individual to reach their full development in a harmonious whole. The work culture is described
as empowerment, and decentralization, and is based on investing in human capital. It is the work
culture based on the dual nature of people providing opportunity for individual development
within a harmonious whole. It is the work culture necessary in the Information Age in order to
release the cognitive, not manual, power of the people.
These educated, independent-thinking, involved people are, at the same time, the profile of the
ideal citizenry needed to make democracy workable. Is it possible that commerce, thus
transformed, can become the source of values, an example of morality in action to be emulated
by the other elements of the culture? Why not? Marx was right about many things, and this
watershed event is no more than confirmation of his theory: "The writers of history have so far
paid little attention to the development of material production, which is the basis of all social life,
and therefore of all real history."153
The Information Age Revolution is based on the most elementary truth about the organization of
human affairs: The opportunity for the fullest development of the individual within a
harmonious whole. The ideal of society reaching its full potential as the sum of individual
development is right out of the Communist Manifesto: "In place of the old bourgeois society,
with its classes and class antagonisms, we shall have an association, in which the free
development of each is the condition for the free development of all."154
Twentieth Century: Ludwig von Mises described why capitalism was failing to reach full
153
Karl Marx, Capital (New York: Penguin Classics, 1994) p. 286, note 6.
154
Karl Marx, Friedreich Engels, The Communist Manifesto (New York: Penguin Classics, 1985, originally published in London, 1848) p. 105.
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potential: The greedy few were able to dominate the uninformed many.
Ludwig von Mises was one of the Austrian economists and a mentor to Friedrich Hayek. Later
in America, von Mises became known as a conservative economist because of his support of
economic freedom. In 1912, however, Mises wrote of how government policies dominated by
financial capitalism caused economic damage and damaged social cohesion. Mises described the
deliberate deflation in Great Britain after the Napoleonic wars which restored the asset value of
the wealthy to pre-war levels by putting people out of work, cutting wages, and raising prices.
Calamitous economic hardship resulted from this deflation; they stirred social
unrest and begot the rise of an inflationist movement as well as the anti-capitalist
agitation from which after a while Engels and Marx drew their inspiration.155
The same philosophy of protecting the asset value of the wealthy by victimizing the people is
used every time the economy is damaged by either war or the excesses of ultra-capitalism.
Mises, the economist honored by conservatives, provides this example of why government fiscal
and monetary policy must be designed by representatives of the people, not by representatives of
finance capitalism.
This same brutal practice was copied in the United States after the Civil War with the same
results. After World War I, Great Britain followed this policy again. John Maynard Keynes
pointed out that not stabilizing the monetary position at the inflated level of 1920 gave Great
Britain a decade of unemployment.156 These are examples of how wealth is persistently
concentrated through government privilege and, in turn, is an example of why social tensions are
provoked instead of economic freedom reaching its full potential.
Mises following the tradition of the Enlightenment made these observations about the process
155
Ludwig Von Mises, The Theory of Money and Credit (Indianapolis: Liberty Classics, 1980, first published in Austria 1912) p. 498.
156
Charles H. Hession, John Maynard Keynes, A Personal Biography of the Man Who Revolutionized Capitalism and the Way We Live, (New York: MacMillan
Publishing Company, 1984) p. 251.
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failure in the rational search for truth:
The main objective of praxeology and economics is to substitute consistent
correct ideologies for the contradictory tenets of popular eclecticism. There is no
other means of preventing social disintegration and of safeguarding the steady
improvement of human conditions than those provided by reason. Men must try
to think through all the problems involved up to the point beyond which a human
mind cannot proceed farther. They must never acquiesce in any solutions
conveyed by older generations, they must always question anew every theory and
every theorem, they must never relax in their endeavors to brush away fallacies
and to find the best possible cognition. They must fight error by unmasking
spurious doctrines and by expounding truth.157
Mises analyzed humans free to make their choices in one of his books appropriately titled
Human Action. He fulfilled the Enlightenment vision by applying his multi-discipline wisdom to
the combination of economic freedom, the search for the rational order, and a warning about the
damage from dogma, whether from the left or the right of the political spectrum.
Friedrich Hayek warns that the movement away from individual freedom toward state control is
the "Road to Serfdom."
The political left has never learned enough about economics and finance to understand how the
political right was concentrating wealth through government privileges. Instead of following the
Aristotelian process of studying the growth potential of the system, defined by Smith and refined
by Marx and Mill, the political left indulged their Platonian instinct for central control by an
elite. Coopting growing democratic power, they attacked concentration of wealth by taxing and
redistributing it. During the twentieth century, this process of collectivism in the United States
raised all taxes as a percentage of the GDP from 3% to over 30%.
157
Ludwig Von Mises, Human Action (Chicago: Contemporary Books, Inc., Yale University Press, 1949) p. 185.
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Hayek wrote Road to Serfdom in 1946, describing how the movement then underway in Europe
and the United States would lead from socialism to fascism. Hayek's book shocked and angered
most of the intellectual community, but his theory has been validated historically since by the
loss of freedoms in forms of collectivism and consequently, the failure of all systems of extreme
central control.
Both the collectivism on the left and the concentration of wealth by the right derive from
government privilege. Both prevent the economic system of Smith, Marx, and Mill from
reaching full potential. These privileged systems are not only impediments to reaching full
potential but they polarize and gridlock the process preventing real reform. It is this impasse that
needs the probing analysis of Enlightenment II that will result in a citizens' agenda for reform.
Conservatives' high opinion of the works of Mises and Hayek in most cases fails to focus on
their monetary views. Capitalism's need for low-cost, ample, non-volatile, patient capital could
be fulfilled, in the opinion of Mises and Hayek, by free banking monitored and punished by all
the usual forces of competition. In the absence of free banking, however, government policies
have to provide the kind of capital that promotes economic growth and prevents privileges for
speculation. The present fiscal and monetary system in the United States, however, is the worst
of both worlds: It privatizes the profits and nationalizes the losses. This would not fit the
Austrians' definition of free markets.
Conservatives are pleased with Hayek's espousal of laissez-faire, but they tend to overlook his
litany of government responsibilities that go beyond laissez-faire. Hayek's role for government
includes virtually every liberal mission, though he emphasized that it is the means to the end that
needs debate, not the end itself. Hayek also characterized conservatism as "paternalistic,
nationalistic, power-adoring, a defender of established privilege and closer to socialism than true
liberalism."158
Hayek had a clear view of why elitists fail at governance when they use their energy to seek
158
Hayek, Friedrich, The Road to Serfdom (London: University of Chicago Press, Routledge and Kegan, 1944), preface to 1956 edition, p. xxxvi.
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alternative social orders through political solutions rather than trying to improve their
understanding and use of the underlying principles of the economic system. From Hayek's study
of these principles, he became an exponent of "spontaneous order" and a critic of collectivism
which does not work well and leads to tyranny as subsequent events proved. Hayek's
"spontaneous order" was the alternative to central planning in which a superior commercial order
arose from the free, spontaneous choices of millions of people.
Hayek understood that the extraordinary improvement in lives had been accomplished by
economic freedom, but he also understood that a higher standard of living generated new
demands to sustain and broaden the progress:
Wherever the barriers to the free exercise of human ingenuity were removed, man
became rapidly able to satisfy ever widening ranges of desire; and while the rising
standard soon led to the discovery of very dark spots in society, spots which men
were no longer to tolerate, there was probably no class that did not substantially
benefit from the general advance. At this moment, when the greater part of
mankind has only just awakened to the possibility of abolishing starvation, filth
and disease; when it has just been touched by an expanding wave of modern
technology after centuries or millennia of relative stability; even a small decline in
our rate of advance might be fatal to us.159
These phenomena place special urgency on an Enlightenment II. Violence among nations and
concentration of wealth, the twin impediments to the superior economic system reaching its full
potential, no longer have any economic logic and should be terminal. The momentum of history,
including its ugly features, however, is great. Hayek pointed out that in our smaller world of
instant communication, most people develop an impatience for the good things in life. When,
instead, their living standards decline, as they have done at the end of the twentieth century in
Indonesia and Russia, two of the world's most populous nations, the people will not stand for it
for very long. If true reform does not position democratic capitalism to eliminate material
159
Ibid., p. 20.
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scarcity, elevate spirits and unify people then new waves of violence will be provoked. The
tragic events on September 11, 2001 give added urgency to these observations.
Jean-Franscois Revel places economic freedom ahead of political freedom in the transition away
from tyranny. Revel exhorts intellectuals to assume their proper responsibilities.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, there was optimism that violence among nations
would be displaced by the rule of law. There was similar optimism that growing democracy was
diffusing political power and would inevitably result in a diffusion of economic power. The
intellectual community however failed in the process of identifying the means to these ends. The
people did not use the growing democratic power to eliminate the impediments because they
were not informed. As a result, the twentieth century, measured in terms of people killed by
governments, was the worst failure in human history. This failure did not, however, cause many
in the intellectual community to recognize their process failure; instead, many abandoned the
search for the best organization for human affairs.
French intellectual Jean-Franscois Revel, author of over twenty books and a former editor and
director of L'Express,160 reminds us that while totalitarian governments are founded on
systematic mendacity, democracy depends on citizens' free choices based on the free flow of
truth. Revel explains the central paradox of the twentieth century, the bending and warping of
the truth in democratic countries because of ideological or intellectual laziness. Revel also
explains why economic freedom will lead to political freedoms whereas political freedoms do
not always lead to economic freedom.161 Revel points out that without improving food, clothing,
shelter, health and education, political freedoms can be a cruel illusion.
Revel discriminates between authoritarian states and totalitarian states. Authoritarian states may
not have all political freedoms but can choose an economic life that is largely autonomous and
160
Jean-Franscois Revel, The Flight From Truth (New York, Random House, 1991). Revel won the Chateaubriand Prize, Paris, 1998, the Jean-Jacques Rosseau
Prize, Geneva, 1989, and the Konrad Adenauer Prize, Bonn, 1990.
161
Ibid., pp. 155-6.
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encourage freedom in philosophy and the arts. A totalitarian government "by definition is a castiron monopoly of politics, the economy, and the culture for the benefit of a self-appointed
oligarchy."162
Revel recognized the world movement to free markets at the end of the twentieth century but
reminded us of a similar optimism for a better world at the end of the nineteenth century that
failed to foresee the corruption of the twentieth-century by totalitarian governments. Likewise,
at the end of the twentieth century, many intellectuals were ignoring the reasons for the
implosion of central planning, underestimating the unifying effect of the Information Revolution,
and still treating unexamined capitalism as the enemy. This myopia may predestine the twentyfirst century to more folly and violence, unless new philosophers can present a rational plan for
citizens' consideration.
Revel in his numerous books has provided an important concept to be integrated into the process
of moving from tyranny to economic freedom. He emphasized that in the difficult management
of change, priorities have to be arranged properly. This should be obvious, but in a politicized,
superficial environment, American politicians seek political benefit by criticizing other countries'
"human rights" violations without placing them within the context of a long, broad process.
China is an example of such criticism where an ongoing movement from tyranny and a low
standard of living to economic freedom, and a higher standard of living has been criticized for
human rights abuses. The first priority in any country is sufficient food, clothing, shelter,
education, good health, hope, and economic freedom serves these fundamental needs. Revel
cautions us to understand the process, including the inevitable transition to political freedom by
the educated, independent-thinking people required for economic freedom to work.
Revel also addressed the intellectual process failure that is threatening the world movement to
freedom. He faults his fellow intellectuals for allowing their personal psychological urges to
dominate their intellectualism and render them incapable of the function upon which society
depends:
162
Revel, "Democracy, If You Can, Keep It," National Review, January 24, 2000, p. 124.
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Everything thus boils down to the erroneous way in which the elusive problem of
the "function of the intellectual in civil society" is usually posed. How can the
intellectual be the rudder of society if he proves himself incapable of playing this
role in his own thinking? How can he be a teacher of honesty, rigor, and courage
for the whole of society when he is dishonest, inexact, and cowardly in the very
exercise of intelligence?163 Still, I venture to hope that we have finally reached
the end of an era during which so many intellectuals strove above all to place
mankind under their ideological domination, and that we are entering a new epoch
in which they will at last settle down to their true vocation, which is to place
knowledge at the service of human beings, and not simply in the scientific and
technical domains. This transition from the old era, when sterilization of
knowledge was regarded as the norm, to a new age is not simply one possible
choice among others: it is a necessity. Our civilization is condemned to abide by
its underlying principles, or else it will regress toward a primitive stage where
there will no longer be a contradiction between knowledge and behavior,
knowledge in the meantime having disappeared.164
Revel and others have examined the intellectual community's failure to fulfill its truth-searching
role in society, first by promoting a terribly flawed agenda, collectivism in its extreme forms, and
subsequently by denying that any agenda was possible. Revel emphasized that this failure
contaminated the whole educational process and led to an impasse at the end of the twentieth
century. The hope for a world united by economic common purpose can be realized only when
the educational process presents to the best young minds an ideal, the means to attain it, and the
empirical evidence that it works.
Pope John Paul II celebrated diverse cultures synthesizing faith and reason for the common
good.
163
Revel, The Flight From Truth, op. cit., p. 363.
164
Ibid., p. 387.
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Karol Wojtyla had been a student of philosophy in his homeland, Poland, when he became a
priest. He understood that faith must constantly challenge reason to continue the confusing task
of finding truths applicable to secular progress: "Reason needs to be reinforced by faith in order
to discover horizons it cannot reach on its own."165 In 1998, Pope John Paul II marked his
twentieth anniversary as pope with his celebration of these interdependent forces in Fides et
Ratio, Faith and Reason.
John Paul II respected cultural diversity, sensing that philosophy emanating from these many
sources would find common ground:
Philosophy is directly concerned with asking the question of life's meaning and
sketching an answer to it. Philosophy emerges, then, as one of the noblest of
human tasks. According to its Greek etymology, the term philosophy means
"love of wisdom." It is an innate property of human reason to ask why things are
as they are, even though the answers which gradually emerge are set within a
horizon which reveals how the different human cultures are complementary.
Philosophy's powerful influence on the formation and development of the cultures
of the West should not obscure the influence it has also had upon the ways of
understanding existence found in the East. Every people has its own native and
seminal wisdom which, as a true cultural treasure, tends to find voice and develop
in forms which are genuinely philosophical.166
From the tragic events of the September 11, 2001 attack on America a new understanding can
emerge from the East and the West, from the cultural diversity honored by the pope.
John Paul II summarized the damage done by reason gone astray in three categories: Trying to
confirm revealed truth by reason, the development of a secular religion, communism, from
165
Pope John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Fides et Ratio, on the Relationship Between Faith and Reason, no. 67, given in Rome at St. Peter's, September 14, 1998.
166
Ibid., no. 2.
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reason, and finally reason that denies its own capacity to harness knowledge to improve the
human condition:
Some representatives of idealism sought in various ways to transform faith and its
contents, into dialectical structures which could be grasped by reason. Opposed
to this kind of thinking were various forms of atheistic humanism, expressed in
philosophical terms, which regarded faith as alienating and damaging to the
development of a full rationality. They did not hesitate to present themselves as
new religions serving as a basis for projects which, on the political and social
plane, gave rise to totalitarian systems which have been disastrous for
humanity.167
As a result of the crisis of rationalism, what has appeared finally is nihilism. As a
philosophy of nothingness, it has a certain attraction for people of our time. Its
adherents claim that the search is an end in itself, without any hope or possibility
of ever attaining the goal of truth. In the nihilist interpretation, life is no more
than an occasion for sensations and experiences in which the ephemeral has pride
of place. Nihilism is at the root of the widespread mentality which claims that a
definitive commitment should no longer be made, because everything is fleeting
and provisional.168
Pluralism in its celebration of the richness, meaning, and pride in various cultures should be as
much an enemy of nihilism as democratic capitalism which celebrates how all cultures can unite
in economic common purpose. Pluralism, or multiculturalism, is based on minority groups
participating fully in the economic-political system while maintaining cultural identity. In this
emphasis, pluralism is consistent with the democratic capitalistic fundamental of all having the
opportunity for full development in a harmonious whole. Pluralism is an emphatic restatement
of the democratic promise of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is vital, however, to
167
Ibid., no. 46.
168
Ibid.
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recognize that whereas pluralism restates the end, it is democratic capitalism that provides the
means.
Descartes spent his life defining a process to lead to truth. He lived in an age, however, of
intellectual tyranny when people were not free to follow their reason or collaborate with others in
the use of reason. At the beginning of the new century and millennium in most parts of the
world, restrictions to the free use of reason disappear as countries move toward economic
freedom. Religious fanatics in some parts of the world do still suppress freedoms, including
particular force against women. They are applying a form of tyranny purged from most cultures
several centuries ago.
Paradoxically, some contemporary intellectuals have converted their social and political beliefs
into a quasi-religion where any argument with the authority of their beliefs is not met with
curiosity and debate but rather with reflex emotion, threats, and insults. Ignored in this new form
of intellectual tyranny is Mises' advice:
The problems involved are purely intellectual and must be dealt with as such. It is
disastrous to shift them to the moral sphere and to dispose of supporters of
opposite ideologies by calling them villains. It is vain to insist that what we are
aiming at is good and what our adversaries want is bad. The question to be solved
is precisely what is to be considered as good and what as bad. The rigid
dogmatism peculiar to religious groups and to Marxism results only in
irreconcilable conflict. It condemns beforehand all dissenters as evildoers, it calls
into question their good faith, it asks them to surrender unconditionally. No
social cooperation is possible where such an attitude prevails.169
Some new philosophers reaffirm the mission of the Enlightenment and, at the same time, reaffirm
idealism.
169
von Mises, Human Action, op. cit., p. 185.
- 146 -
The means and the end will be clear when new philosophers rebuild the rigorous truth-searching
disciplines that this most vital subject, the future of the human species, demands. Superficial
thinking and dogma contradict the intellectual quest in contrast to philosophical offerings in this
century from those trained first in scientific truth-searching disciplines. Teilhard de Chardin, a
renowned paleontologist, and Edward O. Wilson, a Nobel-Prize-winning biologist were also
multi-discipline philosophers who used rigorous truth-searching protocols required by science to
gain knowledge relative to improving the human condition. Many humanists on liberal arts
faculties reject science as too mechanistic, too deterministic, to be useful in the broad area of
human affairs. Many with this attitude betray a flawed epistemological process. Their singlediscipline scholarship disables them from finding the multi-disciplinary solutions required in
complex human affairs; nor do their methods force them into a fuller examination.
Roger Kimball, an author and editor also examines the anti-Enlightenment attitude:
It is a curious irony that self-creators from Nietzsche through Derrida and Richard
Rorty are reluctant children of the Enlightenment. In his essay `What is
Enlightenment? Immanuel Kant observed that the Enlightenment's motto was
sapere aude, `Dare to know!'170 For the deconstructionist, the liberal ironist, and
other paragons of disillusionment, that motto has been revised to read "Dare to
believe that there is nothing to know." The Enlightenment sought to emancipate
man by liberating reason and battling against superstition. It has turned out,
however, that when reason is liberated entirely from tradition, which means also
when it is liberated entirely from any acknowledgment of what transcends it,
reason grows rancorous and hubristic: it becomes, in short, something irrational.
To the extent that Enlightenment rationalism turns against the tradition that gave
rise to it, it degenerates into a force destructive of culture and the manifold
directives that culture has bequeathed to us. Like so many other promises of
emancipation, it has contained the seeds of new forms of bondage. Philosophy
170
Kant's Selections What is Enlightenment? (New York: A Scribner/MacMillan Book, 1988) p. 462.
- 147 -
has been an important casualty of this development. It is no accident that so much
modern philosophy has been committed to bringing us the gospel of the end of
philosophy. Once it abandons its vocation as the love of wisdom, philosophy
inevitably becomes the grave-digger of its highest ambitions, interring itself with
tools originally forged to perpetuate its service to truth.171
Others have translated sapere aude with more of a challenge: Have courage to use your own
reason.
Edward O. Wilson, Harvard professor and winner of both a Nobel and a Pulitzer prize for
science and literature, explained that the title of his book, Consilience,172 means the unification
of knowledge, and he selected this rare word as more precise than "coherence." Wilson proposed
a vision similar to Teilhard's of the social progress possible through the unification of
knowledge. He identified single-discipline scholarship in academia and the under-prepared
media as serious impediments to the unification of knowledge requisite to the rational
organization of human affairs:
The root cause of the problem: ... the overspecialization of the educated elite.
Public intellectuals, and trailing close behind them the media professionals, have
been trained almost without exception in the social sciences and humanities.
They consider human nature to be their province and have difficulty conceiving
the relevance of the natural sciences to social behavior and policy. Natural
scientists, whose expertise is diced into narrow compartments with little
connection to human affairs, are indeed ill prepared to engage the same subjects.
What does a biochemist know of legal theory and the China trade? It is not
enough to repeat the old nostrum that all scholars, natural and social scientists and
humanists alike, are animated by a common creative spirit. They are indeed
creative siblings, but they lack a common language. There is only one way to
171
Kramer and Kimball, The Future of the European Past, op. cit., article by Kimball, "Experiments Against Reality", pp. 216-7.
172
Edward O. Wilson, Consilience, the Unity of Knowledge (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998).
- 148 -
unite the great branches of learning and end the culture wars. It is to view the
boundary between the scientific and literary cultures not as a territorial line but as
a broad and mostly unexplored terrain awaiting cooperative entry from both sides.
The misunderstandings arise from ignorance of the terrain, not from a
fundamental difference in mentality.173
Wilson could have added economics, finance, law, and principles of governance to the
disciplines not integrated with liberal arts in the search for truth about the human condition.
Many intellectual leaders have rejected the challenge of the Enlightenment and abandoned the
search for a unifying force. Others attack any value system; everything to them is relative. The
pluralism that means, "Make up your own value system, one is as good as another," is a negative
influence. The pluralism that insists on "full participation in the dominant economic-political
system by all groups and cultures," is a positive influence.
173
Ibid., p. 126.
- 149 -
Edward Wilson describes the confusion:
All movements tend to extremes, which is approximately where we are
today. The exuberant self-realization that ran from romanticism to
modernism has given rise now to philosophical post-modernism (often
called post-structuralism, especially in its more political and sociological
expressions). Post-modernism is the ultimate polar antithesis of the
Enlightenment. The difference between the two extremes can be
expressed roughly as follows: Enlightenment thinkers believe we can
know everything, and radical post-modernists believe we can know
nothing.
Edward Wilson defended the Enlightenment in specific terms:
I believe that the Enlightenment thinkers of the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries got it mostly right the first time. The assumptions they made of a lawful
material world, the intrinsic unity of knowledge, and the potential of indefinite
human progress are the ones we still take most readily to our hearts.174
Wilson continued with his criticism of those who rejected the Enlightenment's mission:
The philosophical modernists, a rebel crew milling beneath the black flag
of anarchy, challenge the very foundations of science and traditional
philosophy. Reality, they propose, is a state constructed by the mind, not
perceived by it. In the most extravagant version of this constructionism,
there is no "real" reality, no objective truths external to mental activity,
only prevailing versions disseminated by ruling social groups. Nor can
ethics be firmly grounded, given that each society creates its own codes
for the benefit of the same oppressive forces. If these premises are
correct, it follows that one culture is as good as any other in the expression
174
Wilson, op. cit., p. 8.
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of truth and morality, each in its own special way. Political
multiculturalism is justified; each ethnic group and sexual preference in
the community has equal validity. And, more than mere tolerance, it
deserves communal support and mandated representation in educational
agendas, not because it has general importance to the society but because
it exists. That is, again, if the premises are correct. And they must be
correct, say their promoters, because to suggest otherwise is bigotry,
which is a cardinal sin.175
Wilson attacked on all fronts and angered the defenders of a rights-based society so
thoroughly that they poured water over Wilson's head after he finished speaking, chanting
"He's all wet!" Tom Wolfe described the attack on Wilson as "one of the most
remarkable displays of wounded Marxist chauvinism in American academic history."176
A whole generation of sensitive people has been weaned on a combination of
multiculturalism, pluralism, relativism and nihilism. A rights-based society was an
extrapolation of the vital civil rights movement. Antagonism to the establishment was an
extrapolation from opposition to the Vietnam War. Relativism and nihilism are products
of the obscene wars of the twentieth century. All of these are productive social pressures
until they displace the unifying influence of a common ideology.
Edward Wilson examined deconstruction:
Post-modernism is expressed more explicitly still in deconstruction, a
technique of literary criticism. Each author's meaning is unique to
himself, goes the underlying premise; nothing of his true intention or
anything else connected to objective reality can be reliably assigned to it.
His text is therefore open to fresh analysis and commentary issuing from
the equally solipsistic world in the head of the reviewer. But then the
175
Ibid., pp. 40.
176
"Digibabble, Fairy Dust, and the Human," Forbes, ASAP, October 4, 1999, p. 224.
- 151 -
reviewer is in turn subject to deconstruction, as well as the review of the
reviewer, and so on in infinite regress. That is what Jacques Derrida, the
creator of deconstruction, meant when he stated the formula II n'y a pas de
hors-texte (There is nothing outside the text). At least, that is what I think
he meant, after reading him, his defenders, and his critics with some care.
If the radical post-modernist premise is correct, we can never be sure that
this is what he meant. Conversely, if that is what he meant, it is not
certain we are obliged to consider his arguments further. This puzzle,
which I am inclined to set aside as the "Derrida paradox," is similar to the
"Cretan paradox" (a Cretan says "all Cretans are liars"). It awaits solution,
though one need not feel any great sense of urgency in the matter.177
This put-down may be appropriate but intellectuals' support of a new social ideal and
their contributions to identifying the means to the end is an urgent matter. Democratic
capitalism needs the understanding and support of these brilliant people, both optimists
and pessimists who are truly sensitive to the human condition.
Deconstruction is the latest iteration of the skeptic philosophy and should be part of the
continuous process of truth seeking. Greek philosophers both before and after,
challenged Plato's and Aristotle's agreement that ultimate truth was attainable.
Protagoras (481-411 BC) had proclaimed that all truth, beauty and goodness are relative
and subjective; Phyrro (360-300 BC) agreed. David Hume repeated this skepticism in the
eighteenth century. Skepticism, then and now, is a vital part of the challenge and debate
nature of truth-seeking.
Skeptics are correct: There are no absolutes, perfection is not attainable. Each individual
sees, hears, feels, smells, and tastes with imperfect senses, and reasons with a culturally
conditional mind. But what does any of this have to do with finding the best way to
improve the human condition, a relative goal? What works well can be clear, if not
perfect. Reason is a powerful tool, when wielded by a sufficiently culturally diverse
group in collaboration across the full range of scholarly disciplines. This continuous
177
Wilson, op. cit., p. 41.
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process has been the mission of truth-seekers throughout history and is now the mission
of Enlightenment II.
Late twentieth century philosopher sees Teilhard's convergence and Drucker's synthesis
coming into place.
Friedrich Turner, Professor of Arts and Humanities at the University of Texas at Dallas
has predicted a synthesis of religion, art, and science, as a third option in the culture war
between the left and the right:
Huge changes have recently occurred that offer good prospects for peace
and steady economic development. World communism has collapsed, and
with it the economic and political appeal of socialism. The age of
information economics has begun. The computer is multiplying the power
of the brain as the steam engine and internal combustion engine multiplied
the power of the body. Reproductive technology, together with increased
human longevity, has made it possible for societies to survive without
consigning one whole sex to the work of reproduction and nurture, and
thus the talents of women have become available for other tasks. Chaos
theory, ecological thinking, and an enlarged and deepened conception of
evolution have revolutionized the sciences by making plausible a
nonlinear creative potential to counteract the modernist conception of the
universe as deterministic and decaying. Much of the erstwhile Third
World has transformed itself into bustling capitalistic democracies.
Together, these forces spell the end of an old world-view, that of
modernism and postscript postmodernism, and the beginning of a new.
But these changes are still in their infancy, or even in utero, and they are
tragically vulnerable to the forces that oppose them. A new era has begun,
but it faces the baleful resentment of those who cling to the late-modernist
and postmodernist era that gave it birth.178
178
Critical Review II,"Midwife of the Future," No. 2, Spring, 1997. Quoted by Donald Kuspit, Professor of Art History and Philosophy, State University
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Turner proposes an emerging "radical center" with a new view of value that can
transcend the zero-sum view of both the left and the right. According to Turner, the
intellectual left believes that:
This natural value can be extracted from nature only by painful labor, that
it is distributed among human beings either through coercive control by a
ruling class/race/gender or through liberating struggle against that
control.179
Turner believes that the intellectual conservative right shares this "shrinking pie" view
but with a different emphasis: "Natural value is a diminishing stock pile that is
distributed by the invisible hand of the market, a just process that cannot be disrupted
without economic damage."180
This zero-sum world described by Turner is contrary to Adam Smith's dynamic for
wealth creation. Turner understands this, and he describes the radical center realizing
both self-perpetuating growth and elevated spirits:
Value is continually created by the natural universe, that it is not a
shrinking pie, and that human beings can share in and accelerate the
growth of value through work which may be delightful, if disciplined.181
Turner senses this transformation towards a vaguely defined democratic capitalism:
As our technology enables more perfect and multidimensional forms of
communication, as machines take over the drudgery, the labor basis of
of New York.
179
Fredrick Turner, The Culture of Hope, A New Birth of the Classical Spirit (New York: The Free Press, 1995) p. 5.
180
Ibid., p. 5.
181
Ibid., p. 6.
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value is being replaced by an information basis of value; and this in turn
will be replaced, perhaps, by an emergent kind of value which is hard to
define but as a kind of embodied grace.182
With "embodied grace," Turner is close to describing democratic capitalism that
maximizes surplus and eliminates material scarcity by elevating spirits.
Because of the lack of academic visibility of democratic capitalism, professors such as
Turner, have been left looking elsewhere for the moral system:
Unlike the tendency of laissez-faire capitalism, the regime of evolutionary
hope would not reductively boil down all higher motivations to intelligent
materialistic selfishness, but would recognize the equal reality of nobler
impulses.183
Even optimistic academicians share this bleak view of a generic capitalism that ignores
the democratic capitalism that maximized surplus by elevating spirits described in 1848
by John Stuart Mill:
Yet it (the material benefit) is nothing compared to the moral revolution in
society that would accompany it; a new sense of security and
independence in the labouring class; and the conversion of each human
being's daily occupation into a school of the social sympathies and the
practical intelligence.184
Since many humanists have either abandoned or attack a secular ideal, a new social
coalition needs assistance from religious thinkers. The values in the best coupling of
democracy and capitalism are common with those of religion, both sustaining a belief in
182
Ibid., p. 6.
183
Ibid., p. 268.
184
Mill, op. cit., p. 789.
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secular progress. Turner places religion in this powerful perspective:
Syncretism: The incorporation within higher and deeper religious ideas of
the tenets, theologies, and observances of all the religious traditions,
together with the new revelations that continuously pour forth from the
sciences. Religion would be at the leading edge of science. Traditional
religious concepts and metaphors would be recognized as culture-bound,
partial, but valid formulations of the evolutionary direction we should take
and have in general been taking, and as the missing component of social
hope.185
Summary
The fall of Babylon to invaders has become a pattern repeated during the following four
thousand years. As societies become more civilized, affluent, and comfortable, less
civilized tribes or nations invade for their economic benefit, raping and killing in the
process. Later, nations used force for economic exploitation of weaker nations. This
economic imperialism has been extended worldwide by the Western nations during the
last four centuries, but it began to end after World War II. New philosophers should have
the opportunity to seek the optimum arrangement for human affairs in the twenty-first
century free of this impediment of imperialism where nations subjugated other nations.
Although national imperialism is terminal for lack of economic logic, new philosophers
will still have to grapple with the reality that law in the relations among nations has not
yet displaced force. This residual effects from centuries of imperialism can be eradicated
through economic common purpose, rising affluence, better education, and a willingness
of U.N. members to collaborate in the use of force to discipline those still trying to use
force for their purposes.
Many argue that violence and the domination by the human animal over the rational
185
Turner, op. cit., pp. 268-9.
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human is inherent in the species. I believe strongly that bloody human history is due to
the failure of the reasoning process to be reflected in action through the democratic will
of the people. During the twentieth century, enormous progress was made in the standard
of living for many, and growing democratic freedoms responding to human urges and
human reason. In contrast, one-hundred and sixty million people killed by governments
during the same century reflected not inherent evil but rather demonstrable errors in the
reasoning process that led to tragic mistakes in action.
Confucius presented an arrangement for human progress: A secular code of morality,
personal responsibility, and meritocracy in the selection and training of leaders.
Confucius specifically identified violence among nations and concentration of wealth as
the impediments to human progress that could be purged in time by talented and virtuous
leaders. China deliberately abandoned imperialism in Asia in the sixteenth century to
focus on internal development, but later China was unable to avoid force among nations.
This Confucian society was dominated by Western nations and Japan for centuries.
Aristotle added a great deal to the process of truth-seeking beginning with the
investigation of the nature of things, proceeding through the identification of full
potential, circumstances needed, and the impediments to be eliminated, in order for the
growing process to reach full potential. Aristotle's society was dominated, however, by
slavery, inequalities, and violence among states; consequently, the rational organization
of human affairs developed by his process had little chance for broad implementation.
Aquinas packaged Aristotle and a composite of religious teachings from Christianity,
Islam and Hebrew. Aquinas' culture, however, was more barbaric than Aristotle's.
Besides a continuation of forms of slavery, and violence among nations, books and
people were burned for heresy.
Descartes and Bacon added significantly to the architecture for finding truth including
Bacon's dynamic, collaborative, and cumulative process to harness knowledge. While
the epistomological process was improved by the efforts of these philosophers, the
European continent was in a state of confusion between faith and reason. Instead of
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cooperating in the development of a common, secular, moral code, religion assumed the
authority to place the world at the center of the universe and kill anyone who disagreed.
The eighteenth-century Enlightenment assimilated the wisdom of many, including for the
first time the Chinese, and outlined an organization of society based on reason and
experience. The Enlightenment proposed the elimination of war, international law
among nations, political democracy, and broad wealth distribution. Besides an improved
definition of the means to the goal of social progress, the Enlightenment demonstrated the
power of ideas by toppling the political tyranny of the church-state combination, and the
intellectual tyranny of limiting freedom to think and write. The new freedoms provoked
by the French Enlightenment were opposed by the defenders of the status quo, and the
transition turned into the violence of the French Revolution.
During the eighteenth century, the momentum toward intellectual, political and economic
freedom had become irresistible. In Scotland, Adam Smith drew on this momentum, his
knowledge of moral philosophy, and the technology of the Industrial Revolution to
declare that material scarcity was no longer a necessary part of human existence. The
implications were enormous. No economic logic could any longer be claimed for
violence among nations. No economic logic could any longer be claimed for
concentration of wealth. For the first time in human history, a practical way had been
found to neutralize the twin impediments to the attainment of full human potential.
At the middle of the nineteenth century, both Karl Marx and John Stuart Mill concluded
that Smith's system for eliminating material scarcity had been experimentally verified.
They agreed, however, that the capacity to produce was not properly matched with the
capacity to consume. Consequently, wealth was still concentrated and the potential for
improving all lives and social cohesion was not being realized. Both recommended
worker-ownership as the refinement of capitalism that would maximize the surplus and
distribute it so that it would sustain economic growth. In Mill's proposal, workers would
accumulate ownership by purchase and profit-sharing in stock. As this included a
financial sacrifice by the worker in order to acquire stock, the motivation to think and act
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like an owner was assured. Marx did not understand management of change and
proposed tearing down all of the infrastructure in order to introduce a new system.
The work of Smith, Marx, and Mill contains the educational material crucial for new
philosophers because an understanding of the way to maximize and distribute wealth
democratically is fundamental for anyone who aspires to make a contribution to social
progress. To assume responsibility for new opportunities, new philosophers must do
their homework in economics and finance in order to have a functional understanding of
the practical means for human progress.
An important part of this education is an understanding of how and why Marx and his
followers made such egregious mistakes by failing to understand the correct dynamics of
Smith's proposal. An understanding of this history is likewise necessary to understand
how Marx's vision of individual development and the decline of the warrior state
retrogressed into tyrannical governments that caused the tragic events of the twentieth
century.
By the middle of the nineteenth everything was in place for humans to make dramatic
progress toward comfort, freedom, elevated spirits and unity. The wisdom of the earlier
philosophers had defined the intellectual process and outlined the rational order. It was
the responsibility of the philosophers of that time to integrate the contributions of Smith,
Marx, and Mill that specified the means that made the ideal a practical possibility for the
first time. Its implementation would require modification of political structures and
changes in the culture in support of this superior economic system. Enlightenment II new
philosophers must understand how that opportunity was lost resulting in another century
and a half dominated by the same concentrated wealth and violence among nations.
Enlightenment II new philosophers must examine why citizens were not educated and
leaders trained at that time to implement the apparent reforms.
At the end of the twentieth century, despite the end of imperialism, the advent of the
Information Age, and the evidence that economic freedom improves lives, the world was
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still, incredibly, dominated by the twin impediments of violence among nations and
concentrated wealth. The world's presumptive leader, the United States was gridlocked
intellectually and politically by the left and the right. In the twenty-first century, new
philosophers have a greater responsibility than ever before to identify the correct reforms
and purge these impediments because these obstacles to human progress have now lost
all economic logic. Their roots are now more shallow, so they can be more easily pulled
up and discarded.
The political gridlock in the United States had been anticipated by Aristotle when he
warned that the state should not be under the control of either the rich, concentrating and
protecting their wealth, or of the poor, trying to take it away. According to Aristotle,
only the middle class could design and support a system that produces and distributes
wealth in such abundance that everyone's needs are filled.
Twentieth-century philosophers and economists, Mises and Hayek, are helpful to new
philosophers because they described the pathologies of both the conservatives and the
collectivists that gridlock the system. Mises described techniques used by the financial
oligarchy to concentrate wealth. New philosophers need to understand these intrusions
on economic freedom in order to design protections against continued exploitation.
Hayek described the damage that collectivists do to wealth creation and individual
freedom, with their governments of the elite trying to redistribute wealth. Although
Hayek is usually described as a conservative economist he was, in fact, a true liberal
whose belief in the power of freedoms was coupled with specificity in the means for
governance according to liberal principles.
Some late twentieth-century philosophers did damage because they opposed the concept
of the Enlightenment just at the time when the mission of human betterment had become
practical and the impediments to social progress could be eliminated. New philosophers
must understand that philosophers who abandon idealism because of the failures of the
twentieth century are repeating the error of many intellectuals in mid-nineteenth century
when they chose Marx's radical structural change instead of Mill's evolutionary
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refinement. The error then, and now, is reformers using new democratic power to
redistribute wealth instead of influencing government to reform capitalism through fiscal
and monetary policies. New philosophers need to understand that this persistent error is
caused simply because reformers do not understand the government policies necessary to
refine capitalism in ways that maximize the creation and distribution of wealth. The
political power available to counteract the lobbying of finance capitalism and
collectivism is enormous, the reformers need only the agenda of democratic capitalism to
energize and organize this power.
New philosophers need to engage the post-modern deconstructionists in Enlightenment II
as the latest generation of skeptics who move beyond their proper function in the truthseeking process. Bacon called this the dynamic part of the process where, for example,
the hypothesis that social progress depends on movement to a superior economic system
requires challenge, debate and analysis of experience to validate the hypothesis.
Similarly, the hypothesis that democratic capitalism is this superior economic system that
can eliminate material scarcity, elevate spirits, and unify people, requires extensive
analysis of experience presented as experimental verification.
The common denominator among the post WWII visionaries and optimists such as
Teilhard, Drucker, Wilson and Turner is the call for synthesis, or a bridging of
disciplines. New philosophers will realize that as knowledge becomes deeper it becomes
narrower. The extraordinary range of disciplines by earlier thinkers, such as Aristotle,
Descartes, Voltaire, Condorcet, Smith, and Jefferson, is rarely replicated now. All the
more reason that the process has to be collaborative as Bacon described it. With
knowledge more fragmented and specialized, Enlightenment II can succeed only if
representatives from all disciplines make the process a simultaneous teaching and
learning experience. Because truth-seeking is relative and subjective, as the skeptics
point out, collaboration is therefore required to neutralize individual cultural
conditioning.
Multi-disciplinary truth searching for the improved organization of human affairs is not a
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precise science. Human history is not about small misses, it is about incredible folly and
violence. Aristotle provided an appropriate tolerance of error for this effort with this
observation:
It is the mark of an educated man to look for precision in each class of
things just so far as the nature of the subject admits; it is evidently equally
foolish to accept probable reasoning from a mathematician and to demand
from a rhetorician scientific proofs.186
N v Enlightenment II will labor in a time when the circumstances are propitious for
humans to move from functioning at a fraction of potential towards full potential. The
slavery that dominated most societies up to the nineteenth century is gone in most forms;
the imperialism that dominated the world until the mid-twentieth century is over;
concentrated wealth no longer has any economic logic. As nations improve the comfort
and education of their people through economic common purpose, they will substitute
law for force in their relations. As democratic capitalism comes to be better understood,
the protectors of privilege will come to understand that more wealth can be produced for
all through collaboration instead of exploitation whether domestically or internationally.
The new Reign of Terror that escalated so tragically on September 11, 2001 will be
terminated when citizens understand how to move the world away from ultra-capitalism
toward democratic capitalism. Enlightenment II will learn how to use the technology of
the Information Age to codify building blocks of knowledge. Universities around the
world can cooperate and compete in a process that will present each succeeding
generation with a new plateau from which to launch their improvements. Universities
will compete in the sense that part of the truth seeking process will be the resolution of
differences among universities or groups of universities. This is the cumulative process,
the building block approach described by Bacon, and later Condorcet, that has been
applied to great benefit in the sciences but not yet applied to the rational organization of
human affairs.
186
Aristotle, The Basic Works of Aristotle; Nicomachean Ethics (New York: Random House, 1941) Book I, Chapter 3, p. 936.
- 162 -
The world's most powerful nation, the United States, will benefit from Enlightenment II
because an understanding of democratic capitalism will break the political and
intellectual gridlock between the left and the right. Economic freedom, the capacity to
maximize wealth, and the emphasis on personal responsibility are politically and
intellectually attractive to the right, while the opportunities for all, meritocracy, and broad
distribution of wealth are attractive to the left. After finance capitalists and the
institutional investors recognize that long-term accumulation of wealth is best
accomplished through democratic capitalism, only the speculators will support ultracapitalism. After the collectivists realize that their mission is best accomplished by
democratic capitalism, only those motivated by power will support collectivism.
The challenge for new philosophers in Enlightenment II is to validate the goal and
specify the means. New philosophers can identify the kinetic opportunities to redirect the
collectivists' energies into workable ways to improve lives; and they can redirect the
creative energies of finance capitalists, shorn of special privileges, to support of world
economic growth. In this assimilation and repackaging of existing forces the new
philosophers will engage in "the rational investigation of the truths of being, knowledge
or conduct," leading to "a system of principles for guidance in practical affairs."187 In
other words, the new philosophers will be true philosophers.
187
Webster's College Dictionary (New York: Random House, 1991).
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Chapter 5
Conservatism, Collectivism or Liberalism
Socialists increasingly recognized the incurable economic inefficiency of
central planning; collectivists then simply discovered that redistribution
through taxation and aimed financial benefits was an easier and quicker
method of achieving their aims.
— F. A. Hayek188
Conservatism, though a necessary element in any stable society, is not a
social program; in its paternalistic, nationalistic, and power-adoring
tendencies it is often closer to socialism than true liberalism, and with its
traditionalistic, anti-intellectual, and often mystical propensities it will
never, except in short periods of disillusionment, appeal to the young and
all those others who believe that some changes are desirable if this world
is to become a better place.
— F. A. Hayek189
The system that can eliminate material scarcity, elevate spirits, unify people, and stop the
violence, democratic capitalism, is the means to the goals of the political philosophy of
liberalism. Liberalism believes that the human species is functioning at a fraction of
potential and that progress can be made toward full potential by encouraging individual
development in an environment of cooperation and trust. The circumstances required for
each and all to reach full potential include economic freedom, political freedom, rule of
law, equal rights and opportunities, no special privileges, tolerance, progress,
188
F. A. Hayek (1899-1992), co-winner of the 1974 Nobel Prize in Economics and winner of the 1991 Medal of Freedom. New Studies in Philosophy,
Politics, Economics and the History of Ideas (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1974) p. 300.
189 F. A. Hayek, The Road to Serfdom (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1944) preface to 1856 edition, p. xxxvi.
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representative government and the diffusion of economic and political power. It was the
philosophy of the eighteenth century Enlightenment, of Adam Smith's economic system,
and of the government structured by the American founders. This economic-politicalphilosophical system demonstrated in practice during the last two centuries that it was the
means to free the mind, body and spirit.
Collectivism, the political philosophy dedicated to improving the human condition
through the actions of the state, is a twentieth century phenomenon and includes
communism, socialism, and central governments that collect and spend more than 25% of
the nation's production. Collectivists confuse the analysis of competing political
philosophies because they have coopted the term liberal while contradicting many of its
principles. Collectivists do not have the liberals' optimism about people and their
potential for participatory democracy and as a consequence build up the state.
Collectivists do not try to reflect the will and the wisdom of the people because they
believe in Plato's philosophy of governance by an elite. Collectivists treat capitalism as a
generic enemy, ignore the conflict between democratic capitalism and short-term and
greedy ultra-capitalism and as a result promote new government actions instead of
correcting earlier government errors. Many collectivists engaged in the culture war with
the conservatives contradict the liberal principle of tolerance because many revert to
intellectual tyranny in pursuit of their agenda.
Hayek emphasized that in the competition among political philosophies the argument is
not about the goals but about the means, not about the concepts but about competent
execution. Open-minded collectivists who espouse liberal goals should examine Hayek's
advice about the means to their end:
The advocacy of policies which in the long run cannot be reconciled with
the preservation of a free society is no longer a party matter. That
hodgepodge of ill-assembled and often inconsistent ideals which under the
name of the Welfare State has largely replaced socialism as the goal of the
reformers needs very careful sorting out if its results are not to be very
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similar to those of full-fledged socialism. This is not to say that some of
its aims are not both practicable and laudable. But there are many ways in
which we can work toward the same goal, and in the present state of
opinion there is some danger that our impatience for quick results may
lead us to choose instruments which, though perhaps more efficient for
achieving the particular ends, are not compatible with the preservation of a
free society. The increasing tendency to rely on administrative coercion
and discrimination where a modification of the general rules of law might,
perhaps more slowly, achieve the same object, and to resort to direct state
controls or to the creation of monopolistic institutions where judicious use
of financial inducements might evoke spontaneous efforts is still a
powerful legacy of the socialist period which is likely to influence policy
for a long time to come.190
Health care and environmental pollution are examples of this point. Collectivist
programs, centrally planned and micromanaged, are high-cost and frequently ineffective.
Liberal plans use tax incentives to shift responsibility to individuals or companies, and
can be lower cost and more effective.
Conservatism is the political philosophy that honors traditional values, protects the
established order and resists change. Although conservatism in theory, supports many of
the elements of freedom contained in liberalism; conservatives, like collectivists, are not
true democrats as many do not believe in the ability of people to participate in their own
governance.
Conservatives believe in economic freedom as long as the freedoms include the
privileges that have always allowed them to make money on money and concentrate
economic and political power in the process. At the end of the twentieth century
American conservatives, with support by many collectivists, have accomplished an
190 Ibid., p. xxxiv.
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extraordinary lobbying act by convincing the government to extend the concept of
laissez-faire to making money on money and at the same time successfully lobbying the
government to suspend the market disciplines that laissez-faire depends on.
Friedrich Hayek is a favorite of conservatives because of his support of economic
freedom and spontaneous order combined with his understanding of the pathologies of
collectivism. For these reasons, Hayek's description of conservatism should be analyzed
carefully by open-minded conservatives:
In the struggle against the believers in the all-powerful state the true
liberal must sometimes make common cause with the conservative, and in
some circumstances, he has hardly any other way of actively working for
his ideals. But true liberalism is still distinct from conservatism, and there
is danger in the two being confused. A conservative movement, by its
very nature, is bound to be a defender of established privilege and to lean
on the power of government for the protection of privilege. The essence
of the liberal position, however, is the denial of all privilege, if privilege is
understood in its proper and original meaning of the state granting and
protecting rights to some which are not available on equal terms to
others.191
Conservatives in theory support the established order and traditional values, but, in
practice support the traditional privileges that allow them to make money on money.
Until recently this form of capitalism resulted in concentrated wealth that impeded world
economic growth, later in the twentieth century, however, it grew to a size that threatened
the world's economy.
Until the seventeenth century the conservative philosophy of protecting the existing order
dominated. Monarchs had tyrannical power, even Divine rights, the structure was top-
191 Ibid., p. xxxvi.
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down, command-and-control and static. The majority of people were uneducated, the
work done by slaves, serfs or wage-slaves. The European warrior state that evolved in
the seventeenth century was an extrapolation of this primitive social structure where
governments were structured to attack or defend. Concentrated power allowed the state
to control, coerce, and frequently exploit the people. Emperors were economically
motivated to attack other nations, steal their riches and enslave their people.
Demonstrating that tyranny cannot forever suppress the human urge toward freedom,
liberalism began to change society in the seventeenth century. The freeing of the mind
can be traced from the seventeenth century when Descartes advanced the humans'
capacity to use reason to improve their circumstances. In time the freeing of the mind
produced the technological progress of the Industrial Revolution where multiples of
growth and productivity began to free humans from primitive needs.
Descartes was a mathematician who believed what he could prove. His rationalism
evolved into modern forms of constructivism, the idea that the ideal is reached through a
design of the perfect state. David Hume and Adam Smith were critics of rationalism as
they believed that understanding human action, not human design, was the key to social
progress.192 Ultimately it is a question of what works best. Liberalism as the philosophy,
and democratic capitalism as the means, frees the individual to develop and contribute
whereas both collectivism and conservatism restrict human freedom. The social progress
produced by spontaneous order from human freedom still depends on a human design of
the state but in this case it is a state where powers are limited and the design is for
maximum freedom. F. A. Hayek, the great proponent of spontaneous order, still
endorsed functions of the state similar to the collectivists. In Hayek's design, however,
the state aided the individual in participating in their own development. It was
government of, for and by the people.
192 F. A. Hayek, New Studies, op. cit., p. 5.
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In the seventeenth century, Englishman John Locke193 wrote of the inalienable rights of
all humans and the need for government of their choice. England led the way in limiting
the powers of the monarch with their constitutional monarchy that encouraged
Enlightenment thinkers from Voltaire to Jefferson. The new liberal philosophy was the
foundation for the American democratic republic that successfully showed the world the
benefits of freedom. Jefferson's respect for independent thinking, educated, virtuous
farmers emphasized self-development as part of the foundation. Voltaire's lifetime
devotion to tolerance emphasized the necessity to position individual development within
a harmonious whole. During the eighteenth century the traditional tyranny over mind,
body, and spirit supported by conservatism was thus challenged by the liberalism of "life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" of the American Revolution and "liberty, equality,
and fraternity" of the French Revolution a few years later.
By the end of the eighteenth century the goals of the liberal philosophy were clear and the
means specified. Adam Smith had shown the way to economic freedom and a rising
standard of living for all. Thomas Jefferson and the founders had put in place the
political freedoms that complemented the economic freedom. Voltaire had spent a
lifetime emphasizing tolerance of the views, religion, ethnicity of others as fundamental
to liberalism. Voltaire's protege the Marquis de Condorcet summarized these liberal
principles in his Tenth Stage (Chapter 3). The way to a world of peace and plenty was
clear at the beginning of the nineteenth century and was supported by growing
democratic momentum where the people were sovereign. Both Adam Smith and Thomas
Jefferson were emphatic that according to liberal principles government must not intrude
on individual and economic freedom, but they were also clear that the government was
responsible to assure good education and health for all citizens. Smith was also clear that
money must be a stable medium of exchange, capital for investment must be patient, and
that speculators must be controlled by the government in order to sustain economic
growth. Beyond that, Smith joined Jefferson in sensitivity to government's tendency to
grow too large:
193 John Locke, An Essay Concerning the True and Original Extent and End of Civic Government (London: Cambridge University Press, 1967) first
published in 1690.
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Little else is requisite to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence
from the lowest barbarism, but peace, easy taxes, and a tolerable
administration of justice; all the rest being brought about by the natural
course of things. All governments which thwart this natural course which
force things into another channel or which endeavor to arrest the progress
of society at a particular point are unnatural, and to support themselves are
obliged to be oppressive and tyrannical.194
Adam Smith was later translated incorrectly as the conservative defender of generic
capitalism, even the apologist for greed. Not true; Smith was a liberal not a conservative.
Beatrice Webb reflected in 1886:
The Political Economy of Adam Smith was the scientific expression of the
impassioned crusade of the eighteenth century against class tyranny and
the oppression of the Many by the Few. By what silent revolution of
events, by what unself-conscious transformation of thought did it change
itself into the `Employers' Gospel' of the nineteenth century?195
Beatrice Webb's celebration of Smith's liberalism was supported by Carl Menger, the first
of the Austrian economists who later included Ludwig von Mises and F. A. Hayek.
Menger commented, "There is not a single instance in A. Smith's work in which he
represents the interest of the rich and powerful as opposed to the poor and weak."196
German professor Immanuel Kant knew that the liberal movement from violence to
economic common purpose and freedom would reach full potential only if there was a
cooperative attitude and structure among nations. Proof that there was no longer a need
194 Adam Smith. Lectures given in 1750-51 by Adam Smith. Editor's introduction to An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of The Wealth of Nations
(New York: Modern Library, 1977) p. xviii.
195 Beatrice Webb, Diary, July 30, 1886. Quoted in Emma Rothschild's Economic Sentiments, Adam Smith, Condorcet and the Enlightenment. (Cambridge, MASS: Harvard University Press, 2001) p. 65.
196 Ibid.
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to battle over finite resources was not sufficient if the new structure was not powerful
enough to suppress the traditional use of force for perceived national purpose. Kant
proposed a moral imperative in respect to the rule of law displacing war:
Reason from its throne of supreme morally legislating authority absolutely
condemns war as a legal recourse and makes a state of peace a direct duty,
even though peace cannot be established or secured except by a compact
among nations.197
Experience had demonstrated that all freedoms depend on discipline and that similarly an
improving world through economic freedom depends on international law to expedite
commerce and prevent violence. Any law to be effective must be reasonable and serve
the general welfare, but ultimately it has to have an element of coercion that gives real
meaning to law. At the world level this coercion must represent democratic agreement
and multilateral action.
By the middle of the nineteenth century the economic and political freedoms of
liberalism had validated its capacity to improve the comfort and quality of lives. The
world seemed poised to release the latent power of people and accelerate momentum
towards individuals, companies, and governments reaching full potential. By midcentury, however, it was apparent that the conservative resistance to change, and
protection of privileges, was impeding the momentum of liberalism and limiting its
benefits. Although democratic power was growing it was not used to reform the
concentration of power from government privileges, and the diffusion of economic and
political power was limited. Both John Stuart Mill and Karl Marx proposed
emancipating the worker through economic freedom. This liberal solution would
increase the workers' contribution to the creation of wealth as well as their participation
in the increased surplus. Marx and Mill both believed that greater worker ownership
would purge the inherent flaw of capitalism that had persistently concentrated wealth.
Mill extrapolated his refinement upon the capitalistic system of private property and
197 Kant Selections, Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch (New York: A Scribner-MacMillan Book, 1988) p. 437.
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competition. Marx, on the other hand, had little knowledge of how to relate the task to be
accomplished with the resources of time, money, and trained people required, and
consequently based his reform on tearing down the entire infrastructure. Marx was a
collectivist designing the perfect state; Mill believed in liberalism, an evolutionary
progress through spontaneous human action.
Many in the intellectual community were excited by Marx's legitimate criticism of
capitalism and initiated forms of collectivism as their response. These collectivists used
liberal slogans but abandoned their liberal obligation for reform by ignoring Mill's
solution. Instead of limiting the powers of the state consistent with the liberal philosophy
of Smith and Jefferson, the collectivists steadily added to the powers of the state.
During the twentieth century liberalism continued to demonstrate its ability to improve
lives. In many companies variations of Mill's worker participation were tried with
success. Democratic capitalism received a new thrust with the advent of the Information
Age whose dependence on the cognitive power of the people made the democratic
capitalism culture a competitive necessity. The validity of these liberal principles was
confused however, because the collectivists continued to use the word in support of their
statist contradictions. Despite continued evidence that the goals of liberalism could be
attained through the means of democratic capitalism, the system continued to function at
a fraction of potential as conservatism was able to sustain its government privileges and
share political power with the collectivists. In mid-twentieth century, the world seemed
to be moving toward communism and socialism as the social contract that eliminated the
contradictions and excesses of capitalism. Most of the intellectual community in
capitalist countries such as Great Britain and the United States regarded this movement
towards collectivism and away from conservatism as inevitable progress.
Socialism and communism, more extreme forms of collectivism, became the dominant
philosophies, but later in the twentieth century the fatal flaws of central planning became
apparent. These systems, founded on noble purpose, were unable to deliver on their
promises and instead caused extraordinary economic and social damage. They failed
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because they contradicted the basic human urge for freedom and most of the principles of
the freedom philosophy of liberalism. People deprived of freedom did not produce and
innovate and the central state proved a poor substitute for individual spontaneous choice
in economic planning.
Although the events of the twentieth century had demonstrated that central planning in all
forms works poorly, collectivism persisted in its effort to extend the powers of the state.
This can be measured by the percentage of the nations' total production taken in all taxes.
Before World War I, none of the nations in Europe took more than 15% of its wealth in
all taxes; federal, state, and local; in the United States it was about 3%! At the beginning
of the twenty-first century, taxes in Europe ranged from 50% to 63%, and are over 30%
in the United States. By comparison, Singapore, one of the world's most prosperous
nations, collects about 18% of its nation's production with social programs depending
heavily on personal responsibility and forced savings.
Reporter Peter Brinelow identified the late twentieth-century surge of collectivism:
"Fueled by optimism about what governments could accomplish, the industrial nations
embarked on an orgy of government spending. The optimism has faded, but the orgy is
not over."198
The events of the twentieth century provided empirical evidence that more freedom
works better than less freedom. Combined with the failure of communism and socialism
this encouraged many to feel that the world was moving toward economic freedom and
economic common purpose, even an End of History.199 The celebrating was premature,
however, collectivism continued gaining strength in a less visible but more insidious form
with the state making additional intrusions on economic and political freedoms. Hayek
described this collectivist regrouping after the failure of communism and socialism to
pursue their philosophy through taxation and redistribution of wealth for social purpose:
198 Peter Brinelow, "Grabby Governments," Forbes, July 15, 1998, p. 44.
199 Francis Fukayama, The End of History and the Last Man (New York: The Free Press, 1992).
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The defeat of the onslaught of systematic socialism has merely given those
who are anxious to preserve freedom a breathing space in which to
reexamine our ambitions and to discard all those parts of the socialist
inheritance which are a danger to a free society. Without such a revised
conception of our social aims, we are likely to continue to drift in the same
direction in which outright socialism would merely have carried us a little
faster.200
Hayek was right again. Measured by the amount of the nation's wealth collected by the
government, then redistributed in the directions of their choice, this collectivist
momentum has continued. In the 1980s, conservative President Ronald Reagan was the
sworn enemy of collectivism, but the best his administration could do in eight years was
to slow the momentum.
In the decade before the Reagan administration federal government spending was $.2
trillion. By 1990 it was over $1.2 trillion. It was estimated that "in 2000 total federal,
state, and local government spending was $2.75 trillion; as government regulation cost
$1.1 trillion, the total cost of government intervention was $3.86 trillion. In other words,
the portion of the nation's real income consumed by government was a staggering 45.4
percent."201
It is these huge numbers, the rate of growth in the twentieth century, and lack of
application of Information Age technology to bureaucratic operations that gives me
confidence that the government could reduce expenditures to under 25% of the GDP and,
at the same time, do a more effective job in health, education, and environment.
Early in the twenty-first century, collectivism and conservatism energized each other by
examining the excesses of the other but united in sharing political power. Liberalism
200 Hayek, Road to Serfdom, op. cit., 1956 preface, p. xxiv.
201 Patrick Basham, "It's the Spending Stupid," CATO Briefing papers #64, July 18, 2001, p. 5. Government spending figures based on U.S. government budget, fiscal year 2002, regulatory expenses based on a
Washington University Study.
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continued to demonstrate its economic and social logic but became dominated by the
power concentration of the collectivists and conservatives. Both Democratic and
Republican political parties in the United States have abandoned liberal principles in
practice. Individual freedom and responsibility are in retreat while the size of
government continues to grow despite the rhetoric. The political gridlock is matched by
a culture war between the conservatives and collectivists using liberal jargon, although
this culture war is also marked by abandonment of liberalism. Tolerance so precious to
Voltaire is ignored and in its stead are versions of intellectual tyranny in the universities
that are supposed to be the seats of true liberalism. The process of truth seeking initiated
by Aristotle, refined by Descartes and Bacon and completed by the Enlightenment is
replaced by superficialities and anger.
Hayek commented on how thoroughly the collectivist in the United States had kidnapped
the proud term liberal:
In the United States, where it has become almost impossible to use
`liberal' in the sense in which I have used it, the term `libertarian' has been
used instead. It may be the answer; but for my part I find it singularly
unattractive. For my taste it carries too much the flavor of a manufactured
term.202
Hayek went on to describe his frustration at finding an appropriate substitute to
liberalism to describe the system favoring free growth and spontaneous social evolution.
Perhaps liberals have tried too hard to find a substitute rather than refusing to give up the
term. It is harder for a collectivist to define liberalism in a way consistent with their
philosophy than it is for a liberal. A battle over the definition and use of the term liberal
by the collectivists and liberals can force needed examination of their differences. The
political philosophy that inspired the Constitutional Monarchy of England, the American
and French Revolutions should not be surrendered without a battle. In fact, examination
of the meanings of conservatism, collectivism and liberalism should be a part of citizen
202 Friedrich Hayek, Constitution of Liberty (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1960) p. 397.
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education at all ages. Nothing is more fundamental to the success of a democratic
republic than clarity and adherence to the citizens' political philosophy.
Where the collectivists stole the good word liberal for their statist purposes, the
conservatives stole the good words free markets in order to obtain privileges to make
more money on money in the shortest time. These are not word games because at the
beginning of the twenty-first century the collectivists continue to extend statist central
administration at the expense of individual freedoms, while the conservatives support the
dominance of ultra-capitalism at the expense of economic freedoms.
The conservatives are right about many things but are frequently so rigid and righteous
that the real debate is never joined. The collectivists have admirable goals but continue to
ignore that reform requires understanding of the superior economic system, and how to
purge the privileges that concentrate wealth. The conservatives claim to have won the
intellectual battle based on economic freedom, but ignore the two billion people living in
misery, and the escalating social tensions caused by the visible greed of ultra-capitalism.
The collectivists search for a new identity not recognizing that it is liberalism in its
original form.
The world made a bad turn in the late nineteenth century because it adopted collectivism
and failed to reform capitalism supported by the conservatives. The bloodiest century in
human history was the result. Early in the twenty-first century, the means to a near
perfect world has been identified and validated, but the United States is leading the world
in another bad turn by supporting the wrong capitalism, a contributing cause to the attack
on America on September 11, 2001. Collectivists, who share political power, have yet to
learn enough about fiscal and monetary policies to institute needed reforms. If the facts
were known and presented the political constituency available to support this reform
would be a large majority, as they would embrace a rededication to the original principles
of liberalism. Politicians of both parties who so love polls would still find near
unanimous citizen support for these principles of the liberalism of the founders:
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•
Economic freedom
•
Political freedom
•
Rule of law
•
Tolerance
•
Representative government
•
Limited government
•
Equal opportunity
•
No special privileges that concentrate wealth
•
Broad wealth distribution that sustains economic growth
•
Universal education
A matrix examination of how the competing philosophies of conservatism, collectivism,
and liberalism affect government, economics, and the culture.
This matrix examination is not based on precise definitions but rather general tendencies.
Hayek argued that conservatism, collectivism, and liberalism are not, as popularly
presented, positions on a political spectrum from left to right, but are rather competitive
and in many respects mutually exclusive concepts. At the end of the twentieth century
these competitors could be measured and held accountable presumably with the superior
performer becoming the surviving political philosophy for the twenty-first century, and
the new millennium. On the record liberalism should be the dominant philosophy as it is
the cultural and political foundation for the successful American democratic experiment
and the economic foundation that has demonstrated the optimum creation and distribution
of wealth.
• Government
Political power: The collectivists concentrate political power and use it for their social
missions. Conservatives concentrate political power and use it to concentrate wealth.
Liberals seek to limit and diffuse political power. The conservatives and collectivists
combine in a government by the "special interests." Aristotle warned about any
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government dominated by the extremes of wealth or poverty believing that it would be
unable to serve the general welfare. The United States has evolved into that political
trap. The middle class, preferred by Aristotle as the group best able to serve the general
welfare, is usually ignored in the political process because the majority has no
Washington lobby. The majority can, of course, vote but the agenda has already been
defined by the "special interests."
Forms of government: A democratic or authoritarian government can be liberal in the
practice of economic freedom. Authoritarian governments with a dedication to economic
freedom, in time will move to political freedoms. Conservatives proclaim the benefits of
minimum government and economic freedom but in practice use government to
concentrate wealth. Collectivists steadily grow the size and scope of centrally
administered government.
Missions of government: Collectivists believe the mission of government is improving
the human condition, in practice they see no limits to government micromanaging this
mission. Conservatives believe that free people can improve their own lives if the
government gets out of the way. They contradict this mission by successfully lobbying
special privileges. Liberals believe that the mission of government is to support
economic freedom by discriminating between what should be controlled, the monetary
system, and what should not be controlled, commerce. Liberals believe the government
is responsible to help provide the education, good health, and economic opportunities for
each to fully participate, and to help those whose cannot participate in the benefits of
economic freedom.
Participatory democracy: Liberals and conservatives regard it as the low-cost, effective
way to accomplish social objectives. Collectivists prefer state directed programs.
Participatory democracy has demonstrated its superiority over top-down programs when
government does with people not for people. Participatory democracy is an old concept
in the American culture but has gradually disappeared as state directed programs drive it
out and people are seduced away from personal responsibility. In many cases the rigid
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rules of bureaucracy suffocate cooperative programs.
In the 1830s Tocqueville anticipated this slip from democracy into bureaucracy:
When the government covers the surface of society with a network of
small complicated rules, the will of man is not shattered but softened,
bent, and guided; men are seldom forced by it to act, but they are
constantly restrained from acting. Such a power does not destroy, but it
prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, enervate,
extinguishes and stupefies a people till each nation is reduced to nothing
better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which government
is the shepherd.203
Tax and fiscal policies: Conservatives understand these matters in depth and join with
Wall Street representatives of both parties to design policies for their benefit. Most
collectivists do not understand these policies and instead of reforming them for better
wealth creation and distribution they concentrate on taxing and spending. The economic
freedom of liberalism depends on tax and fiscal policies that support democratic
capitalism and purge the privileges of ultra-capitalism.
Laissez-faire, also known as the "market economy:" Conservatives support it, collectivists
oppose it. Liberals believe that it works well in building and selling things if the
government provides a medium of exchange that is stable, and capital for investment, that
is patient. Conservatives have perverted laissez-faire into "free capital roaming the
world" by deregulating at the same time that market disciplines have been abrogated, the
result threatens world economic growth. Collectivists use laissez-faire or the "market
economy" as shorthand for the excesses of ultra-capitalism and in support of more
government action. Most collectivists do not have the education or the interest to trace
the excesses that they target to bad government policies. The result is a further
proliferation of government mistakes instead of correction of earlier mistakes.
203 Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) Democracy in America (New York: Random House, 1990, first published in 1835 and 1840) p. 585, longer quote in Chapter 3.
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Efficiency of governments: Liberalism is the most efficient form of governance because it
releases the productivity and innovation of motivated people. With liberalism both
commerce and government are structured to provide opportunity for the greatest
individual development in a harmonious whole. Collectivism is inefficient because it
cannot assimilate and act on information centrally, and it suffocates the spirit and vitality
of the people. Conservatism is inefficient because finance capitalism, that it supports,
concentrates wealth and deflects capital to speculation. The feeling of unfairness from
wealth concentration causes social tensions, demotivates people, and prevents a sense of
common purpose.
Nationalism: Many conservatives are nationalistic and xenophobic. Hayek felt that
nationalism was shared between conservatives and collectivists: "It is this nationalistic
bias which frequently provides the bridge from conservatism to collectivism." Liberals
may be patriotic but are tolerant for other nations or cultures to be free to improve the
lives of their people in the manner they chose. In 2001, both conservatives and
collectivists are supporting a nationalistic American foreign policy based on unilateral
actions and protection of unexamined "sovereignty." This policy will hinder the
multilateral influence of the U. N. just as it destroyed the League of Nations after World
War I. It is a policy that contributed to the September 11, 2001 tragedy.
Imperialism: Hayek commented on how many conservatives manage to be antiinternational and imperialistic at the same time:
Only at first does it seem paradoxical that the anti-internationalism of the
conservative is so frequently associated with imperialism. But the more a
person dislikes the strange and thinks his own way superior, the more he
tends to regard it as his mission to `civilize' others—not by the voluntary
and unhampered intercourse which the liberal favors, but by bringing them
the blessings of efficient government.204
204 Hayek, Constitution of Liberty, op. cit., p. 406.
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Hayek's description was applicable to conservative views that dominate American
foreign policy at the beginning of the twenty-first century.
Militarism: As nationalism is a bridge between collectivism and conservatism, support of
military power is a natural extension for both. Many conservatives believe that the future
will mirror the past and that war and violence are unavoidable. Many collectivists
oppose military spending, in theory, but support it anyway as to oppose it would be
political suicide. Politicians know that people respond to a common cause but
stimulating nationalistic emotions have been the traditional common cause of politicians.
Liberalism recognizes a dangerous world but differs by believing that a world of peace
and plenty is possible and that economic common purpose and education can phase out
the violence. During the transition multilateral military power is still a necessity.
• Economics
Wealth creation: Collectivists impede the creation of wealth through government
intrusion in the commercial process and by not reforming finance capitalism.
Conservatives impede the creation of wealth by lobbying policies that abrogate the
market disciplines that the free markets depend on and with special privileges, such as
leveraged speculation, that deflect capital from economic growth. Liberals encourage
economic freedom and through the economic system consistent with its principles,
democratic capitalism, release the latent power of people to maximize the surplus.
Wealth distribution: Collectivists loudly oppose the concentration of wealth and seek
government ways to redistribute it instead of reforming the government policies that
allow it. Conservatives concentrate wealth for greedy purposes and use it to sustain their
privileged position. Liberals distribute wealth broadly through democratic capitalism
where participating and contributing wage-earners share in the improvements that they
have produced. This broad distribution sustains motivation and places spendable income
with those whose purchases have the greatest multiplier effect benefiting further
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economic growth.
Free trade: Conservatives support free trade as long as the principles of ultra-capitalism
are applied, that is, treating the worker as a cost commodity and concentrating wealth.
Some conservatives favor protectionism when short term gains are threatened.
Collectivists are also ambivalent, some recognize the benefits of raising the standard of
living in other countries, but many concentrate on lost jobs domestically and inferior
working conditions in other countries. Liberals recognize free trade as the economic
common purpose that can displace violence in the world if there is broad wealth
distribution. Neither conservatives or collectivists support democratic capitalism with its
addition of spendable income for reciprocal purchases that could make free trade a
universal benefit.
• Culture
Common ideology: Many believe that society needs a common ideology to sustain and
improve itself. Conservatism helped the American democratic experiment succeed with
its emphasis on freedom, personal responsibility, education, traditional values, and hard
work. Despite an improving standard of living, however, most Americans recognized an
unfair distribution of wealth that contradicts the positive parts of conservatism.
Collectivism's mission is dedicated to improving the general welfare, a common
ideology, but in practice instead of purging the imperfections of capitalism, collectivism
tries to solve the unfair distribution of wealth by taxing and spending it. In this process
instead of stimulating a sense of common purpose collectivism produces an adversarial
environment and erodes the sense of personal responsibility by conditioning many to a
victims' complex. Liberalism was the common ideology that resulted in the extraordinary
success of the American democratic experiment. At the beginning of the twenty-first
century it is obscured by the power sharing of the conservatives and the collectivists but
liberalism is still the common ideology of the majority of people and can again be the
uniting force.
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Attitude about people: Collectivists construct a government to control individual lives.
By their actions they demonstrate that they do not value highly the abilities of ordinary
people to participate in their own governance. The conservative view began with
Alexander Hamilton in which a power structure of finance capitalists ran the country and
avoided the confusions of the role. Hayek understood this view:
The conservative rests on the belief that in any society there are recognizably superior
persons whose inherited standards, values, and position ought to be protected and who
should have a greater influence on public affairs than others.205
The liberal is not an egalitarian but believes in an aristocracy of talent and virtue who,
however, must prove their merit and the right to lead in a competitive environment with
equal opportunity for all and privileges for none.
Equal Opportunity: The collectivists have a static view that all differences in social
condition that lead to unequal opportunities are solvable by top-down government
solutions. This approach has a poor record because in many cases it encouraged a
victim's attitude that eroded the sense of personal responsibility. The conservative
ignores the realities of social condition and believes that everyone does have equal
opportunity if they only work hard enough. The liberal has a dynamic view that the first
priority is economic freedom that maximizes surplus and distributes it broadly steadily
improving all lives. This priority, however, does not exclude government responsibility
for the health and education of people to fit them to use their opportunities, nor does it
exclude helping those unaided by economic growth.
Rule of law: All three philosophies support the rule of law but the collectivists and
conservatives use it to extend and protect privileges. The liberal believes that the rule of
law is the foundation for freedom but that laws can be dangerous things if not limited.
Social progress: The collectivists believes in social progress and are willing to design a
205 Ibid., p. 402.
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detailed plan to make it happen. Many conservatives fears change and believe that the
future will repeat the past with war and violence inevitable. The liberal believes in social
progress that will occur in a spontaneous way if people are free and the state limited. The
liberal believes that the economic common purpose that will evolve from this process can
eliminate material scarcity and gradually stop the violence.
Enlightenment: The collectivists interpreted the eighteenth century Enlightenment as a
challenge to rationalize a central structure to manage human affairs. The conservative
regarded the Enlightenment as a radical challenge to the traditional structure of church
and state. The liberal believes that the Enlightenment proposed a truth-searching process
adopted from science to ascertain the best organization of human affairs. The liberal
believes that this epistemology, in place of the superficial, politicized present process,
will bring people to the simple combination of economic freedom and a government
dedicated to its support.
Tolerance and diversity: It is the nature of both collectivists and conservatists to have an
evangelical view of their own beliefs and a distrust or disinterest in other views. Hayek
described those who have the "diffidence to let others seek their happiness in their own
fashion and to adhere consistently to that tolerance which is an essential characteristic of
liberalism."206
Religion: Many conservatives support religious views as part of the traditional values
that have been responsible for the success of the American democratic experiment. Many
collectivists support a rights based society by passing laws instead of improving
opportunities. Both are rigid, righteous, and evangelical and create a culture war.
Liberals follow the lead of the Founders where both Republican Jefferson and Federalist
Adams were honored for their opposition to religious intolerance. Hayek felt that:
What distinguishes the liberal from the conservative here is that, however
profound his own spiritual beliefs, he will never regard himself as entitled
206 Ibid., p. 407.
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to impose them on others and that for him the spiritual and temporal are
different spheres which ought not to be confused.207
Coming from France, where the Church and State had recently been uncoupled in a
violent fashion, Tocqueville recognized the continuing benefits from its separation in the
new republic:
Religion nevermore surely establishes its empire than when it reigns in the
hearts of men unsupported by aught besides its native strength. Liberty
regards religion as its companion in all its battles and its triumphs, as the
cradle of its infancy and the divine source of all of its claims. It considers
religion as the safeguard of morality, and morality as the best security of
law and the surest pledge of the duration of freedom.208
Intellectual Community: At the end of the twentieth century the conservatives claimed to
have won the intellectual debate because economic freedom had demonstrated clear
superiority over the central planning of collectivism. The conservatives did not
acknowledge that the form of capitalism that protected their privileges was concentrating
wealth in record amounts and had caused a decline in the standard of living in most
countries. Collectivists were on the defensive as they knew that central planning failed.
As they had never learned how to correct government mistakes that allowed ultracapitalism to flourish they suffer an identity crisis and search for a "third way."
The liberal philosophy is now more compelling than it was even at the time of Smith and
Jefferson because by the twenty-first century all of its tenets had been experimentally
verified. Despite this, American citizens had allowed liberalism to be crowded out of the
political debate and agenda by the conservatives concentrating wealth and the
collectivists concentrating political power. Liberalism is not dead, it is just sleeping
waiting for the American people to wake it up and put it back to work.
207 Ibid., p. 407.
208 Tocqueville, op. cit., p. 44 (fuller quote in Chapter 3).
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Most collectivists sustain a hatred for unexamined capitalism and contradict the term
intellectual by not analyzing the conflicting forms of capitalism. This examination would
lead to government mistakes that allow the excesses of ultra-capitalism but collectivists
gravitate toward government solutions not identification of government errors.
Multiculturalism and Pluralism: Collectivists treat these as the new secular religion.
Conservatives tend to regard them as part of the relativistic attack on traditional values.
Liberals believe that all people should have the opportunity for full participation in the
benefits of economic freedom and that the state has obligations in promoting good health
and education to this end. Liberals agree with conservatives in emphasizing personal
responsibility and are sensitive to the proper relationship of "rights" and "opportunities."
Collectivists subscribe to the pluralism that gives equal validity to different and
sometimes opposing ideas and values. Conservatives believe in the efficacy of traditional
values. Collectivists tend to think in relative terms, conservatives in absolute terms.
Liberals believe that there are no absolutes but that careful use of the best truth-seeking
process will validate that an ideal world is attainable and identify the general means to
attain it.
Summary
For most of the two-century American success story there has been sufficient freedoms,
both political and economic, to improve lives. During that same time, however,
liberalism has been in retreat, conservatism sustained its privileged position while
collectivism gained political power. At the beginning of the twenty-first century,
however, the dynamic among these competing philosophies is not encouraging. The
shared political power of collectivism and conservatism is adding more government,
reducing individual liberty, concentrating wealth in record amounts, and allowing finance
capitalists to dominate the economy. The will and wisdom of the people, based on
original liberalism that should be reflected by their representatives in public policy is
being ignored. Hayek explained that Hitler was able to gain power in Germany in the
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1930s because the conservatives and collectivists found political advantage in sharing
power. A similar power sharing is going on in the United States at the beginning of the
twenty-first century.
The threat to the American democratic experiment from collectivism is slow and
insidious. The threat to the world's economy from ultra-capitalism supported by both
conservatives, and tacitly by collectivists, is however urgent. Many countries have had
encouraging economic momentum reversed by ultra-capitalism, the protestors are
becoming more numerous, and the terrorists are adding new dimensions to the violence.
For over two decades the United States has been flaunting ultra-capitalism as the
"American model." Enemies of the United States have been confirmed in their view of
American exploitation by an economic system devoid of social contract in which all
wage-earners have been treated as an expendable cost commodity and in which the only
motivation is making money on money, quickly. Ultra-capitalism supported by both
conservatives and collectivists is a contradiction to the liberal philosophy because it
depends on special privileges and impedes the opportunity for hundreds of millions
around the world to enjoy economic freedom.
During the Cold War, America frequently violated liberal principles by supporting nondemocratic governments and by refusal to participate in democratic actions by the U.N.
Both of these were understandable tactics during a confrontation with a country with an
avowed purpose of world domination.
After the end of the Cold War the United States did not have leaders with the vision to
lead to a new world by a return to liberal policies. America continued to support
oppressive governments and refrain from democratic participation in the U.N. The
country that demonstrated to the world how to couple democracy and capitalism to
improve lives was instead celebrating an economic "American model" that concentrated
wealth in record amounts, supported governments that denied freedom to their citizens,
and continued to avoid participation in democratic judgments and actions by the U.N.
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Because the United States leaders lacked vision of the unique opportunities for liberalism
in the new century, it engaged in non-liberal actions that threatened the opportunities.
Many were united in a sense of common purpose after the tragic events of September 11,
2001. The world was reminded of this powerful force that should be harnessed in normal
times to improve all lives through economic common purpose. It remains to be learned
how to capture this precious spirit other than in wars or disasters. It should not be hard to
find, it is the liberalism of the Founders, and is still the political philosophy of the
majority.
The following chapter traces the United States history in various events where
conservatism, collectivism, or their combination, caused social and economic damage that
could have been prevented by staying true to liberal principles.
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Chapter 6
Power Failures (Arrogance) and Process Failures (Ignorance)
The American democratic experiment launched in the late eighteenth century was the
greatest opportunity in history for humans to reach full potential. The country had land,
enormous resources, and hard working people who believed that they could make a better
life. The American Founders assimilated the inalienable rights of each individual from
Englishman John Locke, diffusion of political power from the mixed republic of Frenchman
Baron Montesquieu, economic freedom and universal education fundamental to a
democratic society from Scotsman Adam Smith.
The experiment was successful improving the lives of hundreds of millions of people and
validating the eternal contract where each generation was able to pass on a better world to
their children. America became the model for the world, the "light on the hill." It was,
however, an imperfect experiment as it departed from its original liberal philosophy and
allowed impediments to limit its success to a fraction of potential.
Early in the nineteenth century non-democratic privileges were given by the government to
financial capitalists that allowed a concentration of wealth that has persisted since. During
the twentieth century, collectivists tried to redistribute wealth by taxation and central
administration. At the end of the twentieth century, America had an opportunity to lead the
world toward the benefits of economic freedom but failed. In combination, these errors
limited the creation and distribution of wealth that could have eliminated worldwide
material scarcity.
The mistakes that have been made that prevent America and the world from reaching full
potential have been both power failures and process failures. Power failures are the arrogant
usurpations of government for non-democratic purposes. Process failures are due to
ignorance because of imperfect methodology in truth-seeking.
Power failures include:
•
Failure to limit government privileges in fiscal and monetary policy that results in
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concentration of wealth.
•
Failure to limit the growth of government.
•
Failure to participate with other nations in order to substitute law for violence.
Process failures include:
•
Failure of reformers to learn how to couple democracy and capitalism for the greatest
benefit for the general welfare.
•
Failure of reformers to learn how to eliminate the privileges that allow the concentration
of wealth that slows economic growth and causes damaging swings in the economy.
•
Failure of leaders to understand that broad wealth distribution is necessary to sustain
economic growth and make free trade a universal benefit.
•
Failure of leaders to understand a new American world role as economic team leader,
not cop-of-the-world.
These matters have been analyzed in previous chapters. This chapter gives examples of
power failures and process failures over two centuries of the American democratic
experiment. Mistakes, by definition, are correctable. It is hoped that this litany of avoidable
error will encourage a rededication to the liberal philosophy and a new interest in
democratic capitalism as the means to correct mistakes and lead the world toward full
potential.
1818: The first economic recession in the new republic followed a pattern repeated since
with the government providing privileges for finance capitalism in exchange for funds to
fight the War of 1812, followed after the war by lack of government control of speculation
with borrowed money, followed by the rising value of artificial assets, followed by the
decline of the whole economy, followed by government actions that victimized ordinary
people in order to repair the damage to the financial system. In other words, the new
republic had imported the conservative financial oligarchy from Europe with all of its
associated corruptions.
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This episode is an example of all three impediments. The War of 1812 was a particularly
stupid war with the emerging political parties fighting over whether to go to war with France
or England and with the Europeans unable to settle differences by law. It was a power
failure with the financial oligarchy lobbying laws that allowed them to concentrate wealth
and make strikes illegal; and of liberals, Jefferson and Madison, unable to structurally limit
this concentration of economic and political power.
1820: The British conservatives managed government monetary policy in order to restore
the asset value of the wealthy to pre-Napoleonic wars levels. This was accomplished by
hurting the ordinary people through cutting wages, causing unemployment, and raising
prices. von Mises wrote that the resulting social tensions set the stage for the emergency of
Marx.209
This episode is an example of the economic dislocations caused by war and the control of
government by the financial oligarchy to concentrate wealth. This power failure was not
hard to do at that time as there was limited democratic political power and little
comprehension of what the conservative establishment was doing. The social tensions
provoked food riots much like the current attacks on globalization, that is, a process failure
in identifying root causes.
Post-Civil War: The finance capitalists used their power to copy the brutal British practice
and restore the asset value of the wealthy to pre-war levels. In order to make this action less
visible they took longer to accomplish it. The conservative establishment had made huge
amounts of money funding the war; they then successfully lobbied government to purge the
effects of war-inflation on their assets, a power failure.
1896: The political defeat of the Populist party after two decades of trying to democratize
the source of capital was an example of the political power of conservative process and the
inability of the reformers to design and vote for a political agenda to provide workers and
farmers access to capital. The Farmers Alliance was unable to obtain working capital from
private banks despite their willingness to collateralize their farms. Conservatives regarded
them as a threat to the status quo, wanted to destroy them, and did. The Farmers Alliance
was unable also to get direct government assistance, a power failure in face of the lobbying
209
Ludwig von Mises, The Theory of Money and Credit (Indianapolis: Liberty Classics, 1980. First published in Austria in 1912) p. 498.
- 191 -
power of finance capitalism.
World War I: At the beginning of the twentieth century, most were optimistic that the
liberal principles would prevail and that the world was becoming a better place with
improving lives and the rule of law minimizing violence among nations. Senator Patrick
Moynihan (D. New York) summarized this mood:
The idea of a world by law is as old, almost, as the idea of law itself. But it
was only with the latter part of the nineteenth century that it came to be seen
as a practical vision and as a reasonable choice that governments might make
in determining their own behavior. It is probably fair to say that at the turn
of the twentieth century most statesmen in the west expected such a future
for the world. It was part of the prevailing optimism of that time, and closely
associated with the confident expectation that liberal democracy—with its
great emphasis on law as the arbiter of relations among citizens with equal
rights—would become a near universal form of government.210
This optimism was shattered in 1914 by World War I when the rule of law proved too weak
to protect the world. According to historian A. J. P. Taylor, the German, Chancellor
Bethmann, the Austria-Hungarian Foreign Minister Count Berchtold, and Russian Foreign
Minister Sazonov, without the constraints of either domestic or international law, started the
war by daring each other in an international game of "chicken."211 Once the war had started
no one knew how to stop it. While the leaders fumbled around for years, tens of millions
were trapped in the trenches and either killed or wounded, including one-quarter of young
Frenchmen.
This game of "chicken" was set in motion by the actions of German Kaiser William II
whose jealousy of his English relatives' naval power stimulated German armament. In time,
the British did not allow a new powerful German navy to challenge their world hegemony.
According to historian Donald Kagan:
210
Daniel Moynihan, On the Law of Nations (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1990) p. 1.
211
A J. P. Taylor, From the Boer War to the Cold War (New York: Allen Lane Penguin Press, 1995) pp. 147-9.
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His mother was the daughter of Queen Victoria. William came to detest her
domination of his father, her preference for English over German ways, her
liberal policies ... He always suspected that the British did not take him or his
country quite seriously and that they accorded neither due respect and these
prejudices had important consequences.212
Despite some optimism for a world of law, power was still in the hands of capricious men
whose actions would result in millions of deaths, untold human agony, and severe economic
damage. The world was not rational, it was out of control. The bloodiest century in human
history was launched on its mad course by this power failure.
Post-World War I: At Versailles, in 1919 four men dramatized the opportunity to learn
from the mistakes and put the world back on the road to peace and plenty. The French
leader, Clemenceau, however, was understandably vengeful, the American President Wilson
was full of impractical idealism, John Maynard Keynes could not get the leaders to heed his
economic advice and Ho Chi Minh was barely visible. Woodrow Wilson's "Fourteen
Points" encouraged the Germans to believe that the talks would be productive, not punitive,
but Wilson's Points were treated by the rest of the participants as unrealistic propaganda.
John Maynard Keynes could see the dangerous mistakes being made in the reparations
agreement that would make World War II inevitable. Keynes resigned from the British
team and went home to write a book on the subject.213
Another relatively young man at Versailles, Ho Chi Minh was later to become the long-time
independence leader of Vietnam who defeated both the French and the United States in
Vietnam's quest for independence. Ho was deceived by Wilson's "song of freedom,"214 that
is, he had the erroneous idea that Wilson's ideal of sovereignty for all nations included the
Asians and an end to European colonialism. Ho presented requests that were close to "life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," but was ignored. The reparations agreement imposed
on Germany and continued imperialism in Asia set the stage for the horrors of World War II
and later the Vietnam War.
212
Donald Kagan, On the Origins of War, and the Preservation of Peace (New York: Anchor Books, a division of Random House, Inc.) p. 120.
213
John Maynard Keynes, The Economic Consequences of the Peace Process (New York: Harper & Row, 1971).
214
William J. Duiker, Ho Chi Minh (New York: Hyperion, 2000) p. 61.
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While Woodrow Wilson championed liberal principles, he is a case study in process failure.
In the words of his biographer:
Wilson had little time to ponder deeply on the economic causes of war ...
from the beginning of the peace process he had relegated economic matters
to subordinate places ... Woodrow Wilson's first love was politics, not
economics.215
Wilson's instincts were noble but his training inadequate, with his flaws including no
understanding of economics, management of change, and, surprisingly for a politician, little
ability to develop consensus or merchandise his ideas. Wilson died trying to get the League
of Nations approved by the United States Congress. He was defeated in this effort by his
political enemy, senator Henry Cabot Lodge, (Rep. Mass.).
The forces thus set in motion early in the century predestined further failures. The
reparations agreement forced on Germany, together with the ineptitude of the Marxists in
governing during the 1920s, allowed Hitler to take control of Germany. In Russia, Lenin
stole the revolution but he died a few years later, turning Russia over to Stalin's long terror.
R. J. Rummel's scorekeeping of "twentieth-century democide" recorded 20,966,000 killings
for Germany and Hitler, including the ultimate horror, the Holocaust, and 61,911,000 for
Stalin.216 All can be traced to the power failure that allowed World War I to happen and the
process failure that resulted in "peace" terms that made World War II inevitable.
Russian Revolution: Russia, after the 1919 revolution, demonstrated the fatal flaws of
collectivism in a dramatic and bloody way. Marx had correctly identified concentrated
wealth as an inherent contradiction in capitalism and had correctly identified the solution,
broader distribution of wealth by greater participation in ownership by the worker. Marx's
emancipation of the worker, in practice, however, became their enslavement under a new
form of state tyranny. The fatal flaws were central administration that doesn't work and
statist governments that suffocated the people. This was an enormous process failure by
many reformers around the world who were excited by an attack on capitalism but neglected
215
Arthur Walworth, Woodrow Wilson (New York: W. W. Norton Company, 1958) Book II, p. 335.
216
R. J. Rummel, Death by Government (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, 1994) p. 4.
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to learn how to refine it.
Twentieth Century Imperialism: The rejection of the best efforts of Ho Chi Minh at
Versailles demonstrated that the Western powers were not ready to give up the presumed
benefits of imperialism. The world was still dominated by predatory actions and power
failures. Asia was still regarded as an opportunity for colonization. This is one thing that
has changed in the early part of the twenty-first century as imperialism in its original form is
terminal for lack of economic and social logic. Unfortunately, the United States had led in a
new form of financial imperialism that can have the same negative effect on world
economic growth and world peace. This is a power failure that allows a few to dominate
policies; it is a process failure because reformers fail to learn how to modify policies.
Humans use new technology for barbaric purposes: The first bomb was dropped on Arab
civilians near Tripoli by an Italian pilot on November 1, 1911. 217 World War I later
extended the use of planes and bombs as a new level of barbarism. The killing of innocent
civilians escalated during the twentieth century to the fire bombing of whole cities, to the
nuclear destruction of hundreds of thousands in Japan, to the planned destruction of villages,
to the "Surgical strikes" in undeclared wars. Early in the twenty-first century religious
fanatics combined pilot, plane and jet fuel in the attack on America.
These events demonstrated a world dominated by power and violence lacking a process to
identify how to stop the violence.
The Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression: Collectivists claim that the crash and
depression exposed the contradictions in capitalism and an enlightened government stepped
in to save the country. Conservatives claim that the New Deal did not work and that it was
only the production demands of World War II that brought the country out of the
depression. The liberal view is that it was conservative government privileges to speculate
with borrowed money during the 1920s that caused the crash and that it was conservative
policies to regain "fiscal integrity" that exported the damage from Wall Street to Main
Street. The liberal view is that the damage was so severe that the government had to take
extreme damage control actions. Not surprisingly many of them did not work well. This
syndrome of few making enormous amounts of money speculating followed by many
217
Sven Lindquist, A History of Bombing (New York: The New Press, 2001) p. 1.
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suffering from the cure is being repeated by the IMF around the world. After finance
capitalism nearly destroys the system by speculation, bankers fix the banking system only
by cutting wages, raising prices, causing unemployment, stopping loans, and reducing
government spending. The liberal view is that if the government had fulfilled its
responsibility to control leveraged speculation the crash would not have happened or would
have been of a magnitude that the draconian measures that caused the Great Depression
would not have been required. This disaster was another failure to control the power of
finance capitalism because the reformers failed to understand the process.
World War II: During the 1930s there were three incidents that led to a war that could have
been avoided by a strong League of Nations. The first was the invasion of Manchuria by
Japan, the next the invasion of Abyssinia by Italy, and finally the actions by Germany:
The watershed between the two World wars extended over precisely two
years: Post-War ended when Germany reoccupied the Rhineland on 7
March 1936; pre-war began when she annexed Austria on 18 March
1938.218
On September 18, 1931 Japan occupied Manchuria, a part of China but not in perfect
control. China appealed to the League of Nations who had no power and whose members
were distracted by economic difficulties. Great Britain was a Far Eastern power but not
inclined to act. The United States was not a League member, had trade relations with Japan
and had signed naval treaties that gave Japan hegemony. A League commission condemned
Japan "for resorting to force before all peaceful means were exhausted. The Japanese
withdrew in protest from the League of Nations."219
Mussolini had been in power since 1922 but chose 1934 to avenge a humiliating defeat of
Italy by Abyssinia in 1896. Abyssinia was a member of the League of Nations and appealed
its case: "It was the death blow to the League as well as to Abyssinia. Fifty-two nations had
combined to resist aggression; all they accomplished was that Haile Selassie lost all of his
country instead of only half."220
218
A. S. P. Taylor, The Origins of the Second World War (New York: A Touchstone Book published by Simon & Schuster, 1961) p. 131.
219
Ibid., p. 68.
220
Ibid., p. 95.
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The people in Great Britain were strongly in favor of collective security and in support of
the League of Nations but from the moment that Neville Chamberlain became prime
minister in 1937 things changed. Chamberlain was a conservative who "had no faith in the
hesitant idealism associated with the League of Nations."221 Chamberlain and many British
statesmen tended to regard Nazi Germany as the bulwark of Europe against the Bolshevism,
or collectivism, of Russia. Chamberlain was also sympathetic with the problem of 6 million
Germans in Austria and 3 million in Czechoslovakia. Hitler became convinced that the
British would not fight over solutions to these problems. Hitler's grand plan was directed
toward Russia and it was a shock to him when Britain declared war.
Hitler could have been stopped in 1936 by a well-armed France, a well-armed Great Britain,
certainly by the two of them. But these countries had been gutted by World War I and had
demilitarized. The correct response to Hitler was collective security, international law, The
League of Nations. Hitler bluffed successfully because he understood the disarmed
condition and the mood in England and France. He would have never bluffed into a resolute
League of Nations to the shame of the United States. As monstrous a mistake as the
American boycott of the League of Nations was, it will be dwarfed, if, early in the twentyfirst century, the same sloganeering about "sovereignty" prevents the United States from
supporting collective security by the U.N. The twenty-first will be another century of folly
and violence except only worse with a few terrorists who can deliver nuclear, chemical and
biological weapons anywhere, anytime. (This was written over a year before the September
11, 2001 attack on America.)
In the build up to World War II, government mistakes were rife, both power failures and
process failures. The reparations agreement was a mistake; American actions on tariffs and
pulling capital out of Germany were mistakes; continued imperialism in Asia was a mistake;
and the deliberate reduction of military strength by England and France was a mistake. All
of these mistakes could have been compensated by the League of Nations if it had
determined support of all nations backed up by cooperative military power. The United
States aborted that opportunity by refusing to participate. The power of the people had been
usurped by a few xenophobic congressmen.
221
Ibid., p. 134.
- 197 -
Post-World War II: The argument that the bloody twentieth century was the result of
avoidable errors can be demonstrated both by analyzing the power and process failures and
by evidence of other leaders doing it right. After World War II the United States used its
power and money to repair the ravages of war and set the world on the way to economic
growth and better lives for many. The Marshall Plan was one of America's proudest
moments because President Truman, General Marshall, and other leaders understood history
and economics well enough to make the right moves, a process success. Any criticism that
it was self-serving, and in time helped the U.S. economy, misses the point, for mutually
beneficial results are the essence of economic common purpose.
The United States provided the money and encouragement but left the management up to
leaders in their own countries. Some argue that bureaucratic collectivists, both American
and German, tried to micromanage the German recovery but Ludwig Erhard, Finance
Minister and later Chancellor, was too strong and understood free market principles
contained in the liberal philosophy too well. Erhard had combined the right process, the
proper use of power and propelled the German "economic miracle."
The economic recovery that put the social structure back in place in both Germany and
Japan demonstrates what can be done when the national mission is exclusively economic
and not dissipated by an arms race and geopolitics. The German recovery also
demonstrated that economic freedom in liberalism works better than the state control of
collectivism: Germany's economy grew over 8%, while Great Britain, pursuing socialistic
policies at that time, grew one-third of that rate.
1960s Vietnam War: 54,000 young Americans and millions of Vietnamese of all ages were
killed, and many more wounded by a colossal process failure. This was confirmed by
Robert McNamara, Secretary of Defense at the time. In McNamara's book Wilson's
Ghost222 he describes how the government team searching truth and determining action
failed the process. There was imperfect collaboration as the team did not include those with
an empathetic understanding of dominant nationalism, not communism, in the motivation of
vietnamese leaders and people. Lacking the collaboration, that is team members
representing all points of view, the process was neither sufficiently dynamic nor reiterative
in the assimilation of the truth about Vietnam.
222
Robert S. McNamara, James G. Blight, Wilson's Ghost, Reducing the Risk of Conflict, Killing, and catastrophe in the 21st Century (New York: BBS,
Public Affairs, 2001).
- 198 -
McNamara compared the Vietnam experience to the Cuban missile crisis where nuclear war
was avoided because the team included a former Russian ambassador who provided an
empathetic understanding of Russian leader Nikita Khrushchev.
McNamara has provided a self-critical examination that should serve as a case study for
citizen education and leadership training. The Vietnam tragedy should never have
happened. The damage from this process failure can be measured in lives lost; it is more
difficult to measure the effect on American idealism and sense of common purpose but it
was severe.
President Lyndon B. Johnson in secret tapes examined in a book by historian Michael
Beschloss223 confirmed that the Gulf of Tonkin incident never happened. It was this alleged
attack by North Vietnamese on two U.S. destroyers that stimulated Congress to give
Johnson authority in 1964 to significantly expand the war. These tapes reveal that Johnson
knew that the war was unwinnable at the same time he was sending more young Americans
half way around the world to be killed and hurt.224
Why did Johnson and later President Richard Nixon prolong an unwinnable war? It was
politically unacceptable for America to say we made a mistake, declare defeat and walk off
the field. The conventional wisdom was that such actions would compromise our world
power. Instead we continued to kill Americans and Vietnamese in a war that many young
Americans and most of the rest of the world knew was a tragic error.
Vietnam was both a power failure (arrogance) and a process failure (ignorance). It was a
misuse of power when capricious leaders were able to take actions unrestrained by domestic
or international law. It was a continual process failure because the legislative branch along
with the executive branch had insufficient understanding that the prime motivation of the
Vietnamese was nationalism. Most did not know that Ho Chi Minh quoted directly from the
Declaration of Independence in his inaugural address.
NATO Expansion: Late in the twentieth century the United States led in the expansion of
223
Michael Beschloss, Reaching For Glory (Simon & Schuster, scheduled for publication November 2001).
224
David E. Sanger, "New Tapes Indicate Johnson Doubted Attack in Tonkin Gulf." New York Times, November 6, 2001, p. A18.
- 199 -
NATO to three countries contiguous to Russia. These actions took full advantage of a
weakened Russia and were provoked by residual conservative feelings about communism.
In this area of aggressive geopolitics the conservatives can still get bipartisan support from
the collectivists as the label "soft on communism" still has political currency. As
communism fades into history those with the hawkish attitude that war is inevitable are
restating the expression to "soft on defense" as they search for new enemies.
One of the contributing factors to World War II was the feeling among Germans that after
World War I they had been betrayed in the peace negotiations. Robert McNamara,
Secretary of Defense in both the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, describes both
Russia and China feeling betrayed by the United States early in the twenty-first century.
Wilson's ghost has already appeared in the twenty-first century, as Russia
and China have become increasingly suspicious of the United States and the
West for having betrayed them, reneging (as the Russians believe) on
commitments not to expand the NATO Alliance on Russia's western border,
and (as the Chinese believe) on commitments to avoid supporting
independence for Taiwan.225
The prescient subtitle to McNamara's 2001 book is Reducing the Risk of Conflict, Killing
and Catastrophe in the 21st Century!
George Kennan was the original architect of Soviet containment at the beginning of the
Cold War. Kennan commented on the NATO expansion:
I think it is the beginning of a new Cold War. I think the Russians will
gradually react quite adversely and it will affect their policies. I think it is a
tragic mistake.226
The Russians, Kennan observed, were depicted during the U.S. Senate debate on NATO as
still eager to invade Western Europe:
225
Robert McNamara, James G. Blight, op. cit., p. 59.
226
William Grieder, Fortress America, the American Military and the Consequences of Peace (New York: PBS Public Affairs, 1998) p. 162.
- 200 -
Don't people understand? Our differences in the Cold War were with the
Soviet Communist regime. And now we are turning our backs on the very
people who mounted the greatest bloodless revolution in history to remove
the Soviet regime.227
The attack on America has fused the interests of America and Russia and may be permanent
and strong enough to neutralize these mistakes which misuse American power because of a
process failure to think through America's proper role in a new world.
Post Cold War-Russia: An extraordinary opportunity for world peace and economic growth
opened up in 1991 when Russia completed a bloodless revolution under Mikhail Gorbachev
and prepared to move toward economic freedom. Scholars, economists, finance capitalists,
government policy-makers, and journalists from the United States rushed in to dominate the
design of the Russian transition. It was a process failure of enormous magnitude. In simple
terms, they did not know what they were doing. The result has been an economic disaster
and an unnecessary human tragedy. Ten years after the failed attempt, the situation was as
follows:
•
Russia experienced the worst peacetime industrial depression in the twentieth
century.228
•
For the first time in history, a fully nuclear-ready country had been destabilized.
•
Anti-Western sentiment had never been so strong or widespread in modern Russia as it
was at the end of the twentieth century.229
•
The economic catastrophe in combination with pushing NATO into three countries
contiguous with Russia gave the enemies of freedom in Russia a strong position.
•
Because of the economic breakdown, the possibility of nuclear disasters increased
because nuclear missile sites and nuclear submarines could neither be maintained nor
227
Ibid.
228
Stephen F. Cohen, Failed Crusade, America and the Tragedy of Post Communist Russia (New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 2000) p. 28.
229
Ibid., p. 32.
- 201 -
decommissioned properly.
•
Russia's desperate need for hard currency increased the possibility of sale of nuclear,
biological, and chemical weapons to other nations.
•
U.S. actions increased pressure on Russia, China, and India to collaborate as the
superpower antidote to the United States.
How could an opportunity to assist Russia in its movement to economic freedom end in an
economic catastrophe and a political relationship with threatening consequences? The cause
of this process failure was yet another erroneous instance of Americans acting and advising
in arrogance and an appalling ignorance of the management of change and of democratic
capitalism. As ultra-capitalism dominates the domestic U.S. market, it is not surprising that
its corruptions were exported to Russia. In America a favorite buzz word of ultra-capitalists
is "creative destruction," the Russian equivalent is "shock therapy." In this mood, according
to Stephen Cohen, each error: "further undermined aspects of the seventy-year-old Soviet
order—institutional, economic, human—that could have been building blocks of a reformed
Russia but were instead destroyed."230
Cohen found it difficult to "explain the equally large failure of American scholars, at
universities and think tanks, whose careers were devoted to the study of Russia."231 This is
the process failure of the so-called experts who work from a too narrow and too shallow a
range of knowledge and experience. They failed to study Edmund Burke, the eighteenth
century English statesman whose notable understanding of management of change has stood
the test of time. Burke predicted the social chaos from the French Revolution because they
tore down too much of the structure too fast.
There were many contemporary examples, the study of which could have helped avoid the
Russian debacle, including the successful transition of Singapore to economic freedom, or
the long, costly conversion of East Germany to economic freedom by the competent and
wealthy West Germans. The experts also ignored the example of little, financially illiterate,
impoverished Albania in the early 1990s, moving in months from centuries of tyranny
230
Ibid., p. 37.
231
Ibid., p. 17.
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through revolution in the name of political freedom, to uncontrolled speculation, and then
social anarchy.232
China-U.S. Relations in the Twenty-First Century: The same need of enemies colors the
conservative attitude toward China. They are joined, however, by collectivists chanting
liberal slogans about human rights abuses without any understanding of the improvement in
human rights by the difficult movement by China towards economic freedom.
Although the United States has overwhelming military superiority over China, thousands of
nuclear armed missiles instead of a few hundred, for example, the U.S. still finds it
necessary to spy on China with slow coastal planes, fast high-altitude planes, and satellites.
The perception that the U.S. must maintain hegemony in Asia, watch China, and keep
37,000 troops in Korea is all part of a process failure to understand how to use power as a
team player in the new century.
In April 2001, a U.S. spy plane collided with a Chinese fighter plane and was forced to land
in China territory. The incident was front page news for weeks and gave the military hawks
a good opportunity to stimulate anti-Chinese feeling while most of the media served as
midwives in a propaganda onslaught. Why it is a matter of national interest for the United
States to fly spy planes along the China coast as not examined, neither was the presumption
that the U.S. must sustain hegemony in Asia.
China's conversion to economic freedom has raised the standard of living of more people
and democratized more villages than any transition in history. Eventually, economic
freedom will lead to political freedom. Management of change from tyranny to freedom in
a country of 1.3 billion people is complex and takes time. China is making the conversion
slowly and carefully in contrast to Russia who accepted U.S. advice to move quickly that
resulted in an economic and social disaster.
American leaders did not understand that World War II was the end of Western imperialism
in Asia; that error led to Vietnam with all of its tragic consequences. Now, instead of
applauding China's steady movement to freedom, while being patient with its faults,
American leaders still do not understand the forces of history. China will challenge the
232
Bruce W. Nelan, "The Ponzi Revolution, Albanians, Infuriated By Their Losses in a Huge Swindle, Turn Violently against the Government." Time,
March 17, 1997, p. 32.
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United States as the world's largest economy during the 21st century. It will now have the
resources to resist the humiliations by Western nations that have regularly occurred during
the past two hundred years.
The U.S.-Taiwan Relations Act of 1979 was negotiated and signed in the middle of the Cold
War when communism still had aspirations for world domination. Communism failed and
communist countries like China began the long process toward economic freedom as it was
clear that this was the only way to improve lives. Despite this dramatic change in
circumstances, the U.S. leaders in 2001 are still referring to the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act.
Following its terms, ambiguous as they may be, can be construed as "national honor." This
is the same slippery slope starting with earlier agreements that brought the U.S. into war
with Vietnam. Young people can be killed and hurt, again, because of the process failure of
uncomprehending leaders and the media.
China faces a difficult transition. While it has made great progress it has to grapple with the
reality of government tax revenues of only 13.6% of GDP, a fraction of the AmericanEuropean pattern. This does not provide a big safety net for the dislocations caused by
privatization.
As reported in The Economist:
Yet over the past 20 years or more, for all its obvious faults, the world's
biggest Communist Party has also conspired to increase the GNP of the
world's most populous country more than seven-fold, lifting many millions
of Chinese out of poverty.
China's central government receives a paltry 13.6% of GDP In taxes,
nowhere near enough for the reforms of education, pensions and welfare it
plans.233
Chinese leaders understand that economic freedom is the only way to improve lives in the
Information Age. Economic freedoms will gradually produce political freedoms. The last
thing China desires with its small tax revenues is a big budget for a military build-up. That
233
"As China changes, the Communist party must change with it or perish." The Economist, June 30, 2001, p. 9.
- 204 -
will happen only in response to American uncomprehending belligerence, a power failure
and a process failure.
1990 Iraq: On July 25, April Glaspie, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, went to a meeting with
Iraqi officials in Baghdad and was surprised to find that she was meeting with Saddam
Hussein. Communicating through the Iraq translator the ambassador encouraged Hussein to
settle the problem with Kuwait peacefully but made it clear that the U.S. regarded it as a
border disagreement between Arab states in which the U.S. had no opinion or position.
Eight days later, Iraq invaded Kuwait.234
The result of this process failure was the Gulf War, a stunning victory for President George
Bush but the beginning of over a decade of economic sanctions that resulted in the
malnutrition of Iraqi children and high-level bombing that killed other civilians.
The terrorists of September 11, 2001 claimed that these American actions had killed onehalf million Iraqi children, probably an exaggeration but any deaths of children are
unacceptable and the U.S. had provided its enemies with a propaganda cause to inspire more
hate.
Actions have consequences. Was the misinformation and misdirection by a poorly informed
ambassador in 1990 the cause of the terrorists' attack in 2001. Obviously not, but it was part
of a continuing process failure and it was a contributing cause.
1990s: American/U.N. confusion about who, when, where, and how to use force in
Yugoslavia and Africa.
In January 1990, the Yugoslavia Communist League disbanded. The march from tyranny to
economic freedom was spreading from Eastern Europe. First Slovenia became independent
with the encouragement of Germany and without any opposition from the U.S., then the
movement moved south through Croatia, Bosnia, and Kosovo, in each case the desire for
independence was opposed by Serb leader Slobodan Milosovic's plan for Serbian
dominance. Croatia fought on the German side against the Serbs who fought on the Russian
side in World War II. Both had memories of reciprocal atrocities in the battles between
234
Terence C. Jeffrey, "Do We Need War With Iraq?" Human Events, week of October 29, 2001, p. 7.
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European Christians and the Orthodox Slavs. Bosnia was different, this was a battle
between the Serbs and Muslims and became, not a battle but genocide. Kosovo was a
further extension of Serbian ethnic cleansing of the Albanian Muslims.
Yugoslavia provided a case study in the inability of the U.S. to be integrated into a U.N.
effort to preserve peace. The success of every complex task depends on attitude, the
capacity to respect the views of others, to listen, and then to cooperate. Most world leaders
in nations and the U.N. did not like the American attitude which they thought to be: "The
smug, remote, superpower whose attitude on most things was don't call us, we'll call you,
and by the way, we'll make all the important decisions."235
The "Powell Doctrine" became a popular concept. It was promulgated by General Colin
Powell when he was Chief of Staff during the Gulf War and was based on the bad
experiences from the Vietnam War. Powell was later Secretary of State in the George W.
Bush administration. The doctrine went back to fundamentals emphasizing that the mission,
the resources to accomplish the task, the communication among parties, and an exit strategy
all had to be clear and the execution of high quality. As basic as these concepts were they
were all violated continuously during the decade of the Yugoslavian devolvement. There
were at least eight parties involved, each with a different agenda, including U.S. politicians,
U.S. military, U.N., NATO, Great Britain, France, and Germany. Other European
Community nations were involved to some extent as NATO members but Russia, the only
nation with influence over the Serbs, was deliberately excluded.
At the core the problem was that the U.S. which had pioneered democratic principles such
as, "one person, one vote" was unwilling to participate in democratic actions in the U.N.
Xenophobic congressmen considered any "world order" an infringement on "national
sovereignty," as they defined it, forgetting that in a democracy the people are sovereign.
Human history confirms that all freedom must have a discipline. At the government level
there must be law and structure for freedom to flourish. This is particularly true at the world
level where the lack of law and structure has resulted in continuous violence among nations
and people. The American people understand this and polls have shown large majority
support for the U.N.
235
David Halberstam, War in a Time of Peace, Bush, Clinton, and the Generals (New York: Scribner, 2001) p. 193.
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Any opportunity for congressional support for multilateral action with the U.N. received a
severe blow in 1992. With typical confusion of mission and who was doing what to whom,
American soldiers were sent to Somalia on a humanitarian mission and then killed and
desecrated by being dragged through the streets with American people watching on live
television. David Halberstam commented:
American help, if it came at all, would come later rather than sooner, and it
would come smaller rather than larger. It was also a tragedy for U.S.-U.N.
relations, always fragile, but increasingly important if the United States was
to become involved in peacekeeping missions in marginal parts of the world.
The Congress hated it. Mitch McConnell,an influential Republican senator,
was quoted as saying, `Creeping multilateralism died on the streets of
Mogadishu.'236
Yugoslavia was also too little, too late, and too uncoordinated. Early and emphatic action
could have stopped Milosevic, just as it could have stopped Hitler in the 1930s, but
Americans would not join in U.N. actions. For a considerable time American air power was
not used because the Europeans demanded that the U.S. also put troops on the ground along
with the rest of them. After Somalia, the threat of `body bags' was too great.
American unwillingness to cooperate in multilateral actions with the U.N. in 1995
contributed to over 800,00 Tutis being murdered by the Hutus in Rwanda. Halverstam
commented on bureaucracy in the midst of genocide:
Americans were supposed to help out with material. Armored personnel
carriers were to be sent to Rwanda to enable the U.N. troops to get around
the country. But their movement through the pipeline was deliberately
impeded by debates over the terms of the lease, the color of the APCs, and
what kind of stenciling they would have.237
Jesse Helms vs. the U.N.: On January 20, 2000 Republican Senator from North Carolina,
236
Ibid., p. 264.
237
Ibid., p. 276.
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Jesse Helms addressed the United Nations Security Council. Helms presumed to speak for
the American people, and at the same time apparently, the executive branch. Helms warned
that the U.S. overdue bill of $926 million would be paid only "upon the implementation of
previously agreed common-sense reforms." He concluded his remarks by saying that he
"wanted to be candid with you," if the U.N. did not shape up it could result in "eventual U.S.
withdrawal."
The world has been dominated by violence throughout history because of the inability to put
in place international law backed up by multilateral action. Republican senator from
Massachusetts Henry Cabot Lodge killed the opportunity after World War I when he led the
charge to keep the U.S. out of the League of Nations. At the end of the century American
citizens are allowing another Republican senator to undermine and insult the U.N.
Robert McNamara was Secretary of Defense during the Vietnam war and has spent the rest
of his life trying to understand how this great country went so wrong. He was later
President of the World Bank and has combined these experiences in Wilson's Ghost to
recommend specific U.N. reforms, for example:
The Security Council must be expanded, become more representative, and
the veto of the (current) five members must be phased out and replaced with
decision making by a `qualified' majority—for example, 75 percent.238
McNamara knows that the confusion begins with the U.N. and that any opportunity for close
cooperation will need change. After the September 11 attack on America the sense of world
common purpose is good, the opportunities for U.N. reform better, and more Americans are
aware of the necessity to modify our world position from unilateral arrogance to strong team
player.
Late twentieth century: Ultra-capitalism, the ultimate effort to concentrate wealth became
dominant in the late twentieth century. The two impediments to a world of peace and
plenty, concentrated wealth and force not law in the relations among nations were both
made worse by the increasing dominance of ultra-capitalism. Wealth was concentrated in
the U.S. in record amounts but the most tragic damage was the effect of ultra-capitalism on
238
McNamara, op. cit., p. 153.
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emerging economies, many of which were growing at rapid rates. All over the world
hundreds of millions of lives were being improved until lethal finance capitalism struck
reversing economic momentum and provoking political and social tensions.
Lethal finance imperialism is defined as conservative privileges that includes excessive
liquidity where too much uncontrolled short term or hot money overheats an economy with
money going into increasingly risky projects and speculation. This excessive liquidity that
puts an economy into overdrive is assisted by the suspension of market disciplines.
Insurance bailouts and subsidies over a period of a few decades have lowered the sensitivity
of lenders to imprudent loans. These market disciplines were suspended at the same time
that finance capitalism was deregulated and, pressured by the United States, traditional
protections such as cross-border controls of money were torn down. Weaknesses
developing in the economy attract the highly leveraged speculators who can cause a
precipitous drop in a local currency. By now the power of these leveraged speculators to
overwhelm the defensive efforts of central banks to defend currency is so well known that
sometimes just the threat of a speculative attack will drive a currency's value down. After
the damage the bankers follow the usual script of hurting ordinary people in order to regain
"fiscal integrity," that is, wages drop, unemployment goes up, prices go up and the state is
constrained from spending money to help people and the economy recover.
In the 1990s Francis Fukuyama in his End of History239 proposed a world after the demise
of communism moving toward economic freedom and improving lives. Samuel Huntington
in The Clash of Civilization240 saw instead a world devolving with ethnic and religious
animosities among more angry people with more terrible weapons causing violence and
economic and social upset. Indonesia was a model for Fukuyama's thesis until the out of
control international financial system destroyed their economic momentum and made them,
instead, a model for Huntington's thesis.
1997: Indonesia 40-10-50: Indonesia was one of the Asian tigers moving smartly toward
economic freedom with rapid growth rates steadily improving lives and building a sense of
common purpose. In a few decades the number under the poverty line decreased from 40%
to 10%. After lethal financial imperialism, ultra-capitalism, struck, in a few months the
239
Francis Fukuyama, The End of History and the Last Man (New York: The Free Press, 1992).
240
Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of the World Order (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996).
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number went back below 50%. The fragile political structure collapsed and the ethnic and
religious tensions that had been declining in inverse ratio to the improving standard of living
then erupted.
Indonesia is the world's fourth most populous nation. With 225 million people it ranks
behind only China, India and the United States. It is also the world's largest Muslim
country.
Hundreds of thousands of unemployed youths are being recruited by terrorist groups,
including representatives of Bin Laden.
In early October 2001 a group of young Indonesian men met at a safe house
on the outskirts of Jakarta. Recruits of a militant Islamic group called
Hizbulloh Front, they had come to get training in hand-to-hand combat.241
According to their leader, when they are ready they will sweep all Americans out of
Indonesia "because of your government's arrogance you cannot safely live in Indonesia.242
It is doubtful that the members of the Hizbulloh front understand how the combination of
uncontrolled hot money, leveraged speculation, deregulation at the same time that market
disciplines were suspended, and a lack of a stabilizing mechanism in international currency
have caused their economic and social chaos. It is doubtful that they understand that once a
country goes into economic decline, IMF based actions make the financial structure better
but make the social problems worse.
Like the globalization protestors, young people in Indonesia sense that the U.S. led shortterm and greedy ultra-capitalism has caused their country to go backwards economically and
socially. The reality that it is more a series of avoidable mistakes, a process failure by the
United States government instead of a conspiracy, is of no interest.
Is ultra-capitalism the direct cause of the terrorist attack? No, but it is a contributory cause.
241
Michael Shari, "Is A Holy War Brewing in Indonesia?" "U.S. Companies are Monitoring Local Rumblings Carefully." Business Week, October 15,
2001, p. 62.
242
Ibid.
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It is now a direct cause of social tensions that can make Osama Bin Laden's dream of a
worldwide Islamic revolution more likely.
Indonesia's economic and social disaster and its potential Islamic threat is an enormous
process failure. American citizens have let Wall Street lobby their government for policies
and privileges that caused their economic catastrophe. In late 2001 there is no evidence yet
that citizens, leaders, reformers, media, universities, civic groups and the institutional
investors are examining the process failure to work out corrections to the continuous misuse
of lobbying power by ultra-capitalism.
1997: Albanian Anarchy: This small country of over 3 million people on the Adriatic Sea
has a history of domination: Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Turks, Italian fascists, Russian
communists and finally ultra-capitalism. Typical of the Balkans most of the north is
Christian and the south Islamic.
When Albania emerged from almost a half-century of Stalinist isolation in
1991 the United States took a sudden interest in its fortunes. At that time
neighboring Yugoslavia was sliding into violent disintegration and the Bush
administration saw Albania as a potential foothold in the Balkans.243
The United States had an opportunity to help a small country move from tyranny to
economic freedom. Instead the U.S. followed its usual pattern of buying an election for Sali
Berisha, a hand-picked candidate. It was a bargain as it only cost $8 million. 244
Subsequently, various military activities were pursued; air bases, NATO exercises, Albanian
officers training in the United States, etc.
Economic development was left to the ultra-capitalists and the new stock market quickly
went to uncontrolled speculation. Poor citizens actually believed that in this new wonderful
world of capitalism they could "earn" 18% a month by investing in stocks.
Inevitably the speculation climaxed and crashed with Albania descending
into the Hobbesian state of utter anarchy, which seldom happens to a
243
Srdja Trilkovic, "Cultural Revolutions," Chronicles, June, 1997, p. 5.
244
Ibid.
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European country. Armed mobs have ransacked stores, unruly soldiers have
stolen cars at gunpoint, foreign nationals have been evacuated by helicopter
from embassy compounds, and rebels have stolen some 100,000 light arms
from government arsenals.245
The Albanian people were protesting over the collapse of the fraudulent investment scheme,
the Albanian version of the Ponzi Scheme,246 where new money is paid out lavishly to
earlier investors stimulating more new money until the fraud runs out of time. "Albanians,
infuriated by their bosses in a huge swindle, turn violently against their government."247
The Albanian tragedy illustrated how easily a stock market can become a gambling casino
motivated by instant riches. Albania copied the American raging bull stock market. It was
the Albanians' first view of economic freedom and it looked beautiful. Alternate ways of
investing patiently with strong annual dividends and modest appreciation was not a part of
the U.S. advice.
Albania was both a power failure and a process failure of two types. After the fall of
communism the U.S. arrogantly expected to run the world and use any opportunity to
expand its military presence. Albania was a process failure because American leaders were
ignorant of the proper role of the United States after the end of the bipolar confrontation, and
it was a process failure because the American government was ignorant of the damage done
by ultra-capitalism in comparison to the economic and social benefits available from
democratic capitalism.
1998: A Muslim Prime Minister speaks out against a new form of Western economic
imperialism: Prime Minister Mohammed Mahathir was responding to the reversal of
economic momentum in his and other "Asian tiger" countries. It appeared to Mahathir to be
a flaunting of financial power for the usual greedy purposes. He was partly right but the real
cause was a process failure. World powers led by the United States had been unable to
cooperate on a new world financial architecture. As a result there was little control of
lending hot, short-term money for long term investment, and there were unavoidable
245
Ibid.
246
Bruce W. Nelan, op. cit., p. 32.
247
Ibid.
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consequences from simultaneously deregulating banking while suspending market
disciplines. After 1971 when President Nixon floated the dollar, there was no world
monetary stabilizing mechanism for the first time, and leveraged speculation was out of
control, dwarfing world commerce. The power failure allowed ultra-capitalism to export its
damage worldwide; the process failure continued, with the reformers unable to understand
how to fix the problem.
2001: Unilateral America: Before the September 11, 2001 attack on America, the news
was full of examples of a United States not trying to be the world's moral and economic
leader, not trying to make the U.N. the strong agency of international law backed by
cooperative force, instead the United States was pursuing unilateral actions, disappointing
allies, and causing hatred among enemies:
Anthony Lewis reported:
In 1969 President Nixon announced the development of biological weapons
... He then led the way to a 1972 treaty banning the development, production
or possession.
This week President Bush wiped out eight years of effort on a protocol to
enforce the 1972 treaty. President Bush's response was the same as bowing
out of the Kyoto agreement on global warming, the United States has a better
way.
Lewis latter commented:
Once again, under his presidency, the United States was all alone on a global issue.
So it was, also, last week on an effort to negotiate limits on small-arms sales that
feed civil wars and terrorism. Underlying Mr. Bush's response on these matters
there is a failure of vision. He takes a parochial view, driven by ideology and a
narrow sense of where American interests lie. But in today's close-knit world our
interests cannot be so easily separated from global needs.248
248
Anthony Lewis, "The Vision Thing." Abroad at Home Section The New York Times, July 28, 2001, A25.
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President Bush's administration also would not participate in ratification of a treaty creating
the International Criminal Court and was ready to set aside anti-ballistic missile agreements
with Russia.
The New York Times commented:
As the world's strongest economic and military power, the United States has
a compelling interest in helping to expand and shape international law on
matters from arms control to the environment to criminal accountability.
Mighty as it is, Washington cannot expect to lead the way to a less
dangerous, more law-abiding and environmentally sustainable world from
the sidelines.249
All of these examples of U.S. unilateral arrogance were reported in 2001, before the
September 11 attack.
The Will and Wisdom of the People
This will and wisdom of the people evidencing a greater awareness of new world realities
has been reported in many ways. One opinion poll indicates that 86% of Americans in 1996
believed that the United Nations should play a much bigger peacekeeping and diplomatic
role than it did before the Gulf War. 85% believed that the countries of the world should act
together, not on their own, to deter and resist aggression. 83% believed that the United
Nations should tax international arms sales and redeploy money to famine relief and
humanitarian aid.250
In another poll (October, 2000) 65% favored the idea that "a permanent U.N. force be
created that is made up of individual volunteers ready to be sent quickly to conflict areas to
stop the violence." 69% versus 17% favored the idea of voting for a presidential candidate
who supports a stronger U.N. to help keep the international peace, protect the global
environment, and combat world poverty.251
249
"America on the Sidelines," editorial The New York Times, July 29, 2001, p. A25.
250
Grieder, op. cit., p. 171.
251
The Nation, November 6, 2000. "Do the Major Candidates Disagree with Americans on Global Issues? A National Poll with Surprising Results," p. 16.
- 214 -
These are the matters that will determine whether the twenty-first century is one of peace
and plenty or more folly and violence. It is clear from these examples during the 1990s that
the right answers are unlikely to come from the political process affected as it is by both
arrogant power failures and ignorant process failures.
An Enlightenment II however can produce an agenda independent of the superficial,
polarized political process. With the benefit of new communication technology the people
can become truly sovereign and the country will be run by representatives who accurately
filter the will and wisdom of the people, just as the founders intended.
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Chapter 7
The Federal Reserve and The Crash of ‘29
1913: Beginning of the Federal Reserve
The panics were easy to blame on the Morgan interests who manipulated stock markets
and took enormous fees for capital formation and were expected to stabilize currency but
occasionally choked it off. Nationally chartered country banks were required to maintain
their reserves in 47 reserve cities who, in turn, kept their reserves in three central cities,
mainly New York but also Chicago and St. Louis. When the crop working capital
demand hit the country banks drew down reserves from the 47 who, in turn, drew from
the three central reserve banks. If the demand continued, Morgan could raise rates or
decide not to respond. They could organize syndicates or, with enough time, get the
requisite gold from Europe. When none of this was done, somewhere a country bank
would fail as depositors panicked and a “run” began. In fractional reserve banking, when
most want their money, it’s simply not there. While Morgan and the privileged made
money when the system worked and made money when it failed, the problem was not
simple greed, it was systemic because of immobile reserves and inflexible money supply
tied to gold.
The Panic of 1907 scared Wall Street and created the environment for the Federal
Reserve. The repetitive nature of the problem resulted in country banks trying to hoard
reserves in anticipation of Wall Street’s eventual turn down. This hoarding created such
a problem that a New York bank failed and J.P. Morgan had to make a personal plea to
President Theodore Roosevelt to get the government to pump money into the system to
avoid massive failure, which they did.
Because of these repetitive failures, the Federal Reserve was created in 1913. Woodrow
Wilson used populist rhetoric in his 1912 campaign but when elected, with . limited
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economic understanding, deferred to the financial experts. The bill, drafted by an
economist on the staff of Representative Carter Glass of Virginia, was basically the same
as that developed by the heads of National City (now CitiBank), Morgan and Kuhn Loeb.
It solved the currency crises by a privately controlled network of regional reserve banks
that would be given government powers. Wilson didn’t understand the banking experts,
but he didn’t trust them either, so he insisted on the creation of a Federal Reserve Board
in Washington appointed by the President to represent the public interest. After all, he
had campaigned against “a concentration of the control of credit which may at anytime
become infinitely dangerous to free enterprise.” He’d had fights with wealthy trustees
when President of Princeton that gave early evidence of his inability to either
merchandise views or attain consensus. He was unfortunately never reluctant to pursue a
course without sufficient dialogue or opposition. He regarded this as personal courage,
but it ultimately led to the debacle at the Versailles peace talks and his physical
destruction.
The Federal Reserve was a good example of unintended consequences. Wilson was
advised that the government had to take action to prevent these regular liquidity panics.
As a reformer, he thought that this action would finally take control away from Financial
Capitalism. In reality, Democratic Capitalism was doing very well despite the
impediments caused by the deficiencies of Financial Capitalism. William Grieder quotes
historian Gabriel Kolko describing the industrial expansion going on throughout the
country. “From 1900 to 1910, 70% of the new funds for manufacturing were generated
internally, making the corporations more independent of finance capital.” Without the
benefit of tax laws or a comprehending government, democratic capitalism was financing
most of its own growth. Changes then and now in investment tax credits, dividends,
capital gains and creative engineering of the flow of funds from pension plans, could
have made democratic capitalism free of the markups, monstrous errors and other
impediments of Ultra-Capitalism.
President Wilson thought he was leading the fight against privileged interests with his
insistence on the hybrid approach of public-private with the public represented by those
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recruited and appointed by the President. In fact, his unintended consequence was a
repackaging of the control by the banking interests, without diffusion of financial power.
The money reforms protected the old order and money still would not be neutral.
Alternatives for capital formation to encourage the growth of democratic capitalism were
probably not even considered as this constituency was not represented. William Grieder
emphasized the inherent contradiction between the sovereignty of the people and the
function of the Federal Reserve. These non-elected officials decide on how the economy
would grow, they made political moves, particularly before elections, and make decisions
between protecting wealth and creating jobs sustaining the time honored and destructive
nexus between Government and Financial Capitalism. The overwhelming majority in
Congress who voted for Wilson’s plan had created a new management system that would,
in time, replace gold as the regulator. With its influence on money supply and interest
rates, it was a throttle regulating the entire economy through fiat money.
The costs of World War I resulted in the usual government sham of financing by
currency debasement but, in this case, it signaled the end of the gold standard, though no
one knew it at the time. The U.S. held on until it suspended gold convertibility in 1933.
Without the gold standard, the mission of the Federal Reserve changed from being a
protection against liquidity crises to managing the money supply and, in effect, money
value. It evolved into a central monetary administration assuming sovereign power. For
a while it monitored the world’s exchange when, after World War II and the Bretton
Woods conference, the U.S. dollar replaced 2500 years of some type of gold standard. In
1972, President Nixon cut currencies free, resulting in present currency speculation now
dwarfing commercial exchange.
Stable currency to expedite commerce needs consistent protocols on supply, cost of
money, deficits and taxes in all countries. This is impossible when politicians are using
currency manipulation for economic nationalism and speculators make or lost hundreds
of millions, occasionally billions, guessing what the politicians will do. It would be hard
to design a world monetary policy with more risk and further from the economist’s dream
of neutral money.
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In 1920, the Federal Reserve created its first depression in the name of sound finance.
The costs of the war had inevitably caused a 15% inflation as the national debt went from
$1 billion to $27 billion. The Federal Reserve raised the discount rate to a record level of
7% and kept it there for 18 months. Commodity prices fell 50%, plunging farmers into
destructive circumstances. Manufacturing fell by 42% and unemployment rose to 11.9%
with four million people were out of work. Bank failures rose from 63 in 1919 to 506 in
1921. The wealthy were happy to see their assets restored to prior value, although most
had increased assets substantially in real value during the war. This was the first event
that exposed the Federal Reserve abandoning their stated mission to accommodate “the
needs of commerce and industry” and instead accommodating the financial interests.
Their action did protect the purchasing power of the retired with meager assets and on
fixed income but this small part of the population has always been used as the attractive
message in support of unfair distribution to the wealthy. There are other techniques to
protect this group.
This humanitarian concern for protecting the income of the elderly was good
merchandising, but the true trade off was the asset value of the wealthy vs. the jobs of
many. The circumstances in the early 20s anticipated the disastrous events of 1929 and
the great depression, The interventionist techniques were tariffs, money supply, and
taxes with no methodology to discriminate between democratic capital and speculative
capital. The tariff actions of 1921 did serious damage to world trade and set the stage fro
the larger disaster of Smoot Hawley in 1932. While easy money during the 20s helped
support the eventual speculative craze, the manufacturing section was free enough and
prospered with increasing volume and many reduced prices, but this democratic
capitalism deflation was obscured by the inflationary effect of easy credit for speculation.
In 1927, Benjamin Strong of the New York Fed, for a decade the country’s most
powerful banker, responded to a European committee seeking easier credit in the U.S.,
presumably to loosen the credit crunch in Europe. England had been in a poor economy
most of the 20s due primarily to a decision to return to the gold standard and peg the
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pound at its earlier value, an action taken in 1925 by Winston Churchill as Chancellor of
the Exchequer. John Kenneth Galbraith, in his book, “The Great Crash, 1929,” observed
that economics was never Churchill’s strong point and there’s no record of reproach for
this damaging government action. Strong felt that additional easing was appropriate as
there were signs of a slow down in manufacturing. Several hundred million more dollars
were pumped in and were almost immediately sucked into the vortex of speculative
capitalism.
In the early 20s, brokers’ loans totaled less than $1½ billion financing the purchase of
stock on margin then using the rising stock value as collateral to borrow more money to
buy more stock. By 1926, brokers loans increased to $2½ billion, $4 billion in June,
1928, $5 billion by November and close to $6 billion by year end. This enormous
hydraulic flow was coming from all directions as it was easily available at a 12% interest
rate. It was an early version of the hydraulic flow from savings accounts into Broker’s
CDs, then into S&Ls and finally into a black hole of high risk adventures that happened
during the 80s. In the late 20s, banks could borrow from the Federal Reserve at 5% and
loan at 12%. Money flowed into New York from all over the world. Companies evens
started loaning their surplus cash into this speculative craze. During 1929, Standard Oil
of New Jersey contributed $69 million a day, Electric Bond and Share averaged over
$100 million a day. Some, like Cities Service, sold securities and loaned the proceeds.
Why not? It seemed easier than finding new ways to build things. The buying pressure
was so great that the investment bankers created new products for sale such as investment
trusts, a packaging of bonds and stocks. In 1927, trusts sold $400 million worth of
securities during 1929, they sold about $3 billion. In 1995, mutual funds are the hot
commodity confirming the ability of speculative capitalists ever since the Dutch tulip
craze to find a commodity to accommodate the buying urge.
The government and the FED seemed to regard this out of control situation as an exercise
in free market. It did not then and doesn’t now use available tax, currency, and credit
techniques to encourage productive capital and discourage speculative capital. It made
limited moves on margin or interest rates and indulged in a few verbal warnings. The
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free market builds and sells things with money being the medium of exchange. How the
money machinations of Wall Street can be regarded as an exercise of free market
principles is a triumph of merchandising over truth. The FED had the controls but not the
will or the wisdom to use the. The record of selective laissez-faire, suspending
government intervention only during the speculative phase, was kept intact. Speculative
Capitalism Caused the Crash of ’29; the Hoover Administration Intervened with Three
Mistakes that Converted the Crash into the Great Depression.
Once again during the 20s, the government was unable or unwilling to discriminate
between expansion and speculation. The government was partnering with corrupted
Financial Capitalism by acts of commission and omission. Capital was increasingly
directed to the Prodigals and Projectors while Democratic Capitalism was largely
internally funded. The productive economy was driving prices down but Financial
Capitalism and government inflation absorbed this productive deflation and inflated from
there.
After the inevitable climax and crash of artificial assets, the other estate went to work.
The media loves the visibility, excitement and instantaneous nature of the stock market.
It ignores the reality that the stock market has little to do with the productive sector. The
market has only two motivations: greed and fear. Whenever the fear prevails resulting in
a crash of artificial assets, the media reports it in a way that exports the fear of the general
economy. Aided by Hoover’s errors, it worked in 1929-32 when people stopped buying
and manufacturers trimmed inventories. The media tried to export the crash in 1987, but
it didn’t happen because of the lack of similar government errors and the continued
buying pressure form institutional liquidity such as pension money.
Once it was clear that the system was heading into a depression, Hoover either initiated
action or allowed Congress and the Federal Reserve take action to:
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1. Raise personal taxes to record progressive levels (63%) with
retroactivity that pulled cash out of accounts exacerbating the banking
crises.
2. Passed the most protectionist law in U.S. history with quick
devastating effect on world trade.
3. Reversed the easy money of the 20s at the wrong time. During
1930, the Federal Reserve decreased money by 4.2%, speeding up to
7.1% reduction in 1931 and 12.3% in 1932, provoking deflation and
reduced demand.
The crash of ’29 and the Great Depression a case study of continuing epistemological
failure. By now, the facts should be well known and provide clarity to be used in current
decisions but that is not the case, the events are still confused with lies and myths. There
are many books that provide clarity. John Maynard Keynes in “General Theory”
describes the antics of the market as a game of musical chairs. John Kenneth Galbraith
gives emphasis on the flow of speculative cash in “The great Crash 1929” but ignores the
intervention. Ronald Nash in “Poverty and Wealth,” lines up the four main myths and
analyzes/destroys each. Jude Wanniski details all of the forces before and after in “The
Way the World Works.” Continuing damage is done however by liberals that describe
the Crash and Great Depression as caused by the laissez-faire policies of Hoover, later
corrected by Roosevelt’s enlightened intervention. In their view, this was the watershed
even confirming the inherently destructive cycle of the free market and the necessity for
government intervention to minimize the hurt to society due to this flaw. All not true, the
government made mistakes with monetary policies that allowed the inherently destructive
cycle of Speculative Capitalism followed by intervention damage control that exported
the crash of artificial assets to a destruction of the general economy. The problem was
not a matter of choosing the correct political abstraction, it was mistakes of omission
during the 20s, followed by mistakes of commission after ’29. The common denominator
was failure of leadership. Before his seduction by the collectivists, Roosevelt
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campaigned against Hoover leading us toward socialism, opposed insuring bank deposits,
promised a balanced budget, and felt that the free economy was a great system, but
hadn’t been tried yet!
1929 Smoot Hawley Being Debated
The Republican party was determined to help the farmer who was suffering from a
worldwide shift to low cost producer and mechanization. This was a classical economic
shift where government intervention shouldn’t happen. A “no risk, no hurt” system cant
exist but both would be minimized if the situation was left to self-correcting capabilities
of the free economy. “Old Guard” Republicans favored protective tariffs on all
agricultural products but both Democrats and “progressive” Republicans opposed Senator
Borah of Idaho who presented a resolution reflecting the “sense of Senate” against
extending protectionism beyond agriculture, and the resolution failed 39 to 38. The stock
market assumed that the non-voting senators would favor free markets and anticipated
eventual victory for the anti-tariff forces moving from 281 in March to 347 in July to 381
in September.
October 29: The market gyrates as Senate debates tariffs. Great attention given to such as
casein, a product made from skim milk and used in the manufacture of glue and slick
paper. Was it a farm product or industrial? The House left the rate at 2½¢/lb., the Senate
Finance Committee bumped to 3½¢/lb. The question was what the full Senate would do.
Adam Smith would have fainted at this intrusion.
Oct. 23-24: Market off 21 points and goes into Black Thursday panic. Senator
Shortridge, on behalf of dairymen, tries to get casein up to 8¢/lb. Compromise made at
5½¢/lb. Fifteen tariff schedules under review affecting 20,000 items.
Nov. 13: Tariff bill daily news with the question whether to be killed or passed, Dow
down to 198. Hoover is silent on tariff but cuts personal income tax rate by 1%. By end
of December Dow back to 263. 1930 Stock market recovers to 294 in April. Foreign
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interests express horror over potential tariff, urge that bill be killed.
British India points out that a 1000% increase in tariffs on cashews will destroy their
industry and also points that the U.S. does not produce cashews.
Greece’s minister calls attention to America’s first place in Greek imports and that
proposed tariffs will significantly reduce Greece’s purchasing power to buy American
goods.
Italians are more passionate, and think that the U.S. is trying to structure an export/import
equation that will allow them to corner the gold market. They reciprocate with tariffs
ranging from $815 on a Ford to $1,660 on a Chrysler Imperial. By November, Italian car
agencies are out of business and the Ford assembly plant closed. U.S. car windows are
spat upon and tires punctured.
June 15: Hoover breaks silence and says he will support the tariff bill. National
Association of Manufacturers says it will “bring a breath of relief to all industry and all
business.” Big labor approves. Tough combination: big government, big business, big
labor. Stock market starts slide to a low of 41 on July 8, 1932.
1929-32: Hoover’s interventionist damage control makes problems worse and the long
and deep recession foreordained. Federal Reserve reduced money supply by 30%
between 1929 and 1932, leading to reduced demand and deflation. Over 5,000 banks go
under with deflation reducing purchasing power and unemployment peaking at 25%. In
1933 there were innumerable personal bankruptcies. The classical economist would
describe falling prices and falling wages as the self-correcting feature of the free market.
Hoover took all possible action to keep both prices and wages up. Agricultural price
supports resulted in larger crops and surpluses with no market.
1932: American exports were down by almost two-thirds, $5.5 billion in 1929; $1.7
billion in 1932. The tax increase in 1932 was the largest in the history of the nation.
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Real gross national product fell by 14.8% in 1932.
1932: Federal Reserve action: Basically nothing, they followed earlier conventional
wisdom that their function was to add money to the system during growth and the
withdraw during recession. Hoover didn’t control their action or inaction while they
confirmed their defacto mission of financial interests over jobs. From 1929 to 1932,
money disappeared as foreigners took back their loans in anticipation of Smoot Hawley.
Billions of dollars of bank debt was liquidated by defaults and bankruptcies as U.S.
money shrunk by one-third. Hoover lamented that the Fed became “a weak reed to lean
upon in time of trouble.” The 1992 version is “pushing on a string.” There is almost
unanimous expert agreement that this was tragic human error as the Fed should have
given the economy the equivalent of electro shock with infusions of money. They didn’t.
Some suggest if Benjamin Strong had not died in 1928, leaving a decision vacuum, things
would have been different. But, if true, this is a perilous system to be so dependent.
Most of Hoover’s advice after a decade of government intrusion was now free economy.
Let the system self-correct. Andrew Mellon, Treasury Secretary, was particularly
emphatic in the need for a good purging process, “liquidate labor, liquidate stocks,
liquidate the far, liquidate real estate.” The fact that the purge would destroy farmers and
result in 25% unemployment of those most distant from the speculative frenzy was
unfortunate but irrelevant. Workers were merely a variable in the equation. Amazingly,
after another half century workers are still a variable as putting them out of work is the
conventional weapon against inflation.
The story is actually worse. The Federal Board chairman in Washington, who at the time
did not have central control, pleaded in 1931 for the reserve banks to pump money into
the system, but they did the reverse. Finally, in April 1932, Chairman Eugene Meyer,
with the support of Morgan and others, prevailed and $100 million a week was pumped
into the system for eleven weeks. The transfusion was bringing the patient back to
health. The Chicago Fed and Philadelphia Fed, however, led a successful campaign to
abandon this initiative and resume the contraction. The reason, expanded money supply
drove down interest rates on government securities, the major source of large bank
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earnings at the time. A few months later, a third wave of bank failures swept the country.
The reforms implemented during the thirties in the Federal Reserve had two things in
common: an appearance of solving a problem and the usual ratchet effect of initiating a
bigger problem. Some of the moves:
1. Deposit insurance of $5,000-a good idea to fight bank runs. Now
up to $100,000 and in the S&L scandal, high rollers were using the
$100,000 at multiple locations. Roosevelt warned that deposit
insurance would be a disaster and a burden on tax payers – he was
right.
2. Federal Reserve centralized control
3. Glass Steagall separated commercial banking and long term
investment banking with controlled interest on deposits allowing
government to engineer how banks make money.
4. No cabinet officers ex-officio numbers of Federal Reserve Board
purportedly distancing it from politics.
5. Government debt securities replaced short term commercial notes
as the medium for Fed action. This seemingly innocuous action, in
time, integrated the interests of Fed and Financial Capitalism with a
proportionate increase in distance from democratic capitalism.
The Financial Predators and Government Errors Opened Door to the
Collectivists.
The Great Depression truly drove the country close to revolution. The people
were again remote witnesses to the excesses of the twenties but then the direct
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victims of both the excesses and government error. Their leaders had failed them,
not due to uncontrollable events, but due to inadequate training. Wilson didn’t
know what he was doing when he created the Federal Reserve, and Harding,
Coolidge and Hoover didn’t know the difference between growth and speculation,
between overproducing and overtrading. They were descendants of Madison and
Monroe who supervised the first Crash in 1818-19 for basically the same reasons.
The unwitting legacy from the protégés of Jefferson was a monetary system with
an inverted mission of serving the privileged at the expense of the general
welfare. Rather than the free banking of Adam Smith disciplining the system or
direct government control, the country ended with the worst of both worlds:
enough government intervention to insure constant errors from the adversarial
political process with enough freedom to allow the predators to plunder the
system.
The Collectivists were on a roll worldwide in the early 30s. Stalin, Mussolini,
and even Hitler were becoming role models for those with the Platonian conceit.
The failure of leadership in the U.S. opened the door wide for their social
construct. Most if it failed but World War II obscured this allowing contemporary
liberals to blame the 1930’s problem on free markets and give the recovery credit
to Collectivism. Anyone still doing this should have their intellectual’s card
punched as this theory can’t stand even a little inspection.
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Chapter 8
A Case Study in Bad Government:
The Savings and Loan Disaster
The Savings-and-Loan Fiasco Cost Taxpayers About One-Half Trillion. It combined
Flawed Monetary Policy Favoring the Few with Bad Legislation, Worse Execution.
From the time Jefferson lost the battle to the financial aristocracy, the country has
suffered cycles of speculation, followed by impoverishment of the farmer and job-loss by
workers. The pattern never changed. A few gained riches in both directions, while the
worker and farmer were hurt in the up and devastated in the down, the monetary system
was so flawed that occasionally it couldn’t even fund the seasonal demand to get crops to
market. Democratic Capitalism, however, proved to be powerful enough to overcome the
impediments and the country went on flourishing.
During the twentieth century, the flaws in the monetary system were combined with the
accelerating growth of big government to produce mistakes of gargantuan proportions.
The Savings and Loan disaster in a case-study for new leaders, to help them understand
root causes and the disaster in the century, the earlier two being the ’29 Crash and
subsequent Depression, and the misdirection of $2.6 trillion in workers’ pension money
to speculative capitalism. In each case, mistakes were made in a flawed structure
producing a flawed process. After each speculative craze reached its inevitable damaging
conclusion, the process continued with a new generation of politicians producing a new
generation of mistakes. The people sensed failure of leadership but didn’t know how bad
it was.
On October 15, 1982, President Reagan signed the Garn-St. Germain Act. Two hundred
people were invited to the Rose Garden for this “Most important legislation for financial
institutions in 50 years.” Two years into his first term, the President apparently felt that
he was honoring his campaign pledge to get the government off peoples’ backs in order
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to allow the private sector to grow and create jobs. He was, in fact, sustaining a disaster
and giving deregulation a bad name.
Back in 1932, President Franklin Roosevelt had threatened to veto a bill that would
provide government insurance for bank deposits of $2,500, later $5,000. He felt then that
it was a dangerous abrogation of market place disciplines and would inevitably encourage
risky business decisions with the financial damage paid for by prudently managed banks.
He was later convinced by his advisors that the panicky banks runs could only be
stemmed with such extreme damage-control legislation.
The new law didn’t have a “sunset provision phasing out such protection after the crisis
and there was no effort to insure on a risk-oriented basis. (At the time the Garn-St.
Germain bill was being designed in the early 1980s, such insurance deposit had increased
to $40,000. As the bill was being expedited to conclusion, the persistence of an industry
lobbyist was rewarded with having the insured level increased to $100,000 without
limitation on the number of locations.
A modest protection for the small depositor, controversial as that was, was now
converted to an insured financing vehicle for “prodigals and projectors”, as Adam Smith
called them. Deposits were not only insured, there was no relation between risk and
reserve. A trillion-dollar obligation had been added to the U.S. economy. This mistake
cost about half that, all dumped onto the taxpayer.
Thrifts were started in the mid-nineteenth century as a way for people to pool assets to
help expedite home-buying. The banks were too engrossed in commercial lending to
service the home mortgage market thoroughly. Government incentives could have
helped add this to the existing infrastructure, but they were lacking. This simple thrift
idea, modeled after similar institutions in England, worked well. Supported by a steady
economic growth, home ownership in the U.S. reached record levels, with 2/3 of families
owning their own homes during the twentieth century.
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In due time government regulation crept in. Regulation Q had mandated a maximum
5.25% interest payment on bank savings. Paul Volker’s term as Chairman of the Federal
Reserve in the late 1970s saw his uncoordinated attack on inflation driving interest rates
up to as high as 20%. This quickly exposed the fundamental flaw in the now-regulated
S&L, an inversion of the normal banking principle. The were borrowing high-cost
monthly short, to invest in low-return long. Putting the industry in a destructive
economic vise. It might be educationally beneficial to analyze what would have
happened if there had been no regulation, or what other alternatives could have been
explored. The original mission was low-cost, available home mortgages. Because of
uncoordinated government intervention the mission now became, save the S&Ls.
During the S&L decade of the 80;’s, Danny Wall was the central figure. He had worked
for a Savings and Loan in Salt Lake City and came to Washington as chief administrative
aide to Senator Jake Garn (R-Utah). In 1989, the Wall Street Journal described him as
“The S and L Looter’s Waterboy.” If Wall was the “waterboy,” then the S&L lobbying
group, the U.S. League of Savings Institutions, was the coach. In 1985, Senate records
show the waterboy’s taking 30 trips paid for by the coach. The same article described
this former assistant city administrator in Salt Lake City becoming chairman of the
Federal home Loan Bank Board, a clear case of Peter Principle.
In 1980, the Senate Banking Committee addressed the predicament that the S&L industry
was in due to uncoordinated government intrusion earlier. There was a low level of
interest on deposits, based on Regulation Q, combined with a high cost of new monbey
due to the Volker Federal Reserves scorched-earth policy to lick inflation. The S&Ls
were borrowing high cost money short and investing low cost money long in fixed rate
mortgages: banker’s nightmare.
When the Senate undertook damage control, Danny Wall was involved in drafting the
new legislation as his boss, Jake Garn, was Chairman of the Committee. One common
denominator, of all of these key players was a lack of knowledge or experience in the
complex financial engineering in which they were engaged. The mixed government
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structure was adversarial, superficial, and on a political schedule allowing untalented
people to write laws by depending on the self-serving expertise of the lobbyists.
Unfortunately there was no lobbying force for Democratic Capitalism anticipating the
damage and providing useful counter-proposals.
The product of Wall’s drafting, coached by the U.S. League, was the Depository
Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act of 1980. This act phased out
interest-rate controls and at the same time raised the FLSIC insurance coverage from
$40,000 to $100,000. The coverage had been raised by Congress from $20,000 in 1974.
The 5.5% interest cap had been extended by Congress to the thrifts in the 60s, on the
interesting theory that capping deposit interest would help keep down mortgage costs.
It was a popular law, in favor of low-cost housing, probably used by every politician
within reach during campaigns such as an example of his productivity and vision. It was
a good concept if applied in a vacuum. The new law quietly removed the limitation on
brokered deposits to 5% of total deposits. Brokered deposits were the device that
investment bankers like Merrill Lynch later used to suck out all these low-return, but norisk, savings accounts to move the money to the newly high risk S&L’s. Why not? It
was insured.
The leap to $100,000 worth of deposit insurance was integrated at a late-night session on
Capitol Hill, pushed by the chief Washington lobbyist of the U.S. League. It had no
opposition and was later described as an afterthought. But it was typical of the sporadic,
uncoordinated laws affecting the Savings and Loan industry. Until 1932, thrifts were
regulated only at the state level. When the Federal Reserve was centralized in 1932,
thrifts were given the option of being federally- chartered. In 1934, the first deposit
insurance of $5,000 was passed for both banks and thrifts, with the reserve funded by
assessments of members.
Not surprisingly, the 1980 legislation did not resolve the S&L dilemma, as a law to help
attract funds could not work if the return on funds was not improved. In the first half of
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19823, thrifts lost $3.3 billion, and cried for more government relief. This was the
intention of the 1982 Garn-St. Germain Bill that President Reagan proudly announced.
This bill attempted to deregulate the industry so it could now earn higher returns on the
higher-cost deposits stimulated by the 1980 bill. It was an impressive laundry list:
! They could invest up to 40% of their assets in non-residential real-estate.
! They could offer market money funds free from withdrawal penalties or interest-rate
regulation.
! In the same year Congress passed a resolution effectively committing the taxpayer to
back up the FSLIC if it went broke.
! A single shareholder could own a thrift rather than 400 stockholders with a 25%
individual maximum ownership.
! Land could be used for an asset in lieu of cash, helping developers with unsalable land.
! 100% financing could be done with no cash from borrower.
! Real estate loans were not limited to the location of the thrift.
! Accounting rules were stretched to include good will as part of the net worth, this
premium paid for an acquisition over book has value only in the eye of the beholder. By
1986, it represented 40% of all thrift net worth, which was supposed to be the buffer
against loss.
! New federal rules were so liberal that thrifts were converting from state charter to
federal.
As a source of funds for state regulation, this last item sparked a liberalization
competition where states such as California outdid the Federal with no limits on non-
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residential loans, The only state that outdid California was Texas. The already liberal
rules in the booming oil economy got a shot of adrenaline with the $100,000 deposit
insurance. Texas bid the highest rates for brokered deposits and grew at three times the
national average…”By 1987, 50% were run by managers who had entered the business
after 1979 (over 80% were former real estate developers).” Danny Wall reappears later,
fighting reform efforts as the crisis developed. In 1987, as a reward for loyalty and
services rendered, he became Chairman of the FHLBB.
1983 was the beginning of Edwin Grey’s agony. He was well known and popular at the
U.S. League of Savings Institutions, representing Great American First Savings Bank of
San Diego as their P.R. man. His background was solid Ronald Reagan loyalist, as Grey
had been his press secretary during his years as Governor, and he had worked a short
time as Assistant to the President and Director of the White House Office of Policy and
Development.
The November, 1982, League convention in New Orleans featured Ronald Reagan as
keynote speaker, During that convention, Grey was asked to become Chairman of the
Federal Home Loan Bank Board. He was sworn in on May 1, 1983 by his friend, Ed
Meese, Attorney General. As described in “Inside Job,” this man, soon to become a
pariah in an epic drama, expected the be a cheerleader for the industry for a couple of
years and then go back to San Diego. His function was driven home his first day on the
job when he received a phone call from Treasury Secretary Don Regan. “You’re going to
be a team player, I take it,” Regan asked him. “Sure,” Grey answered. End of
conversation.
Financial capitalism, soon to become speculative capitalism, was well represented. Don
Regan was former Chairman of Merrill Lynch; retiring League Chairman Richard Pratt, a
former Utah University professor, was headed to Merrill Lynch to be Chairman of their
Capital Markets Group; John Heimann, Controller of Currency, was later Vice Chairman
of Merrill’s Capital Markets Group. When the rush of money sucked out of low-paying
savings accounts passed through deposit brokers like Merrill Lynch on their way to the
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highest bidding thrift, they left as much as $150 million a year in Merrill fees.
When Grey became chief cheerleader, he had limited qualifications and was paid
commensurately. If he had known what he was getting into, he probably wouldn’t have
taken the job, or would have insisted on hazards duty pay. The 1980 legislation gave the
thrifts an opportunity to pay better than competitive rates for deposits; the 1982 law gave
the opportunity to invest this high-cost money seeking high-profit return.
Most importantly, with deposit insurance now backed by taxpayers if the FLSIC went
broke, no one cared what the risk was. While going broke, troubled thrifts bid higher for
deposits and kept effectively doubling the bet. Why not? The money was available. The
deposit brokers, like Merrill Lynch, had advanced technology with national
communication networks on line to computers to give daily information on where to
place more bets. Package it at $99,999, the investors like the rate, the thrifts like the
money, Merrill likes the fees, the politicians like “saving the S&Ls,” and everyone is a
winner. Wrong!
Before Grey went into office, the missile was fired up and the countdown had begun, but
the government was still busy with its uncoordinated design for disaster. Congress
passed the Economic Recovery Act of 1981, making commercial real estate attractive by
liberalizing taxation. This initiative from the Treasury Department of Don Regan would
encourage new projects, many funded by thrifts. This misadventure helped the
speculative craze in the “up” direction, but with the usual erratic government action,
when the overbuilding problem gained visibility, a new law was passed.
The Tax Reform Act of 1986 pulled the plug on tax benefits and now produced a
downward effect after the earlier upward one. This law lengthened the depreciation
period from 19 to 31 years, “thus collapsing the present values of real-estate prices.” Not
content with this blow, the reformers deprived present values of real-estate prices.” Not
content with this blow, the reformers deprived passive investors of certain tax deductions
on interest and depreciation, thus hiking the costs of investments. In case any profit were
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left, the reform raised the capital-gains tax rate 20% to 28%.
While the missile was ready to fire, there were numerous warning signals. Study of the
Penn Central Bank failure in 1981 provides lessons on high-risk, insured real-estate
ventures. Government-insured deposits had recently broken the half-trillion level, up
from $2.1 billion in 1940, $11.2 billion 1950, $55.8 billion in 1960, and $137.2 billion in
1970.
CATO, a Washington organization, wrote about thrifts in 1982, that “The ailing giant was
on the brink with a total net worth of negative $70 billion,” pointing out the continuing
abnormally of borrowing short to invest long. It predicted that the government could not
substitute for market oversight in controlling the risk inherent in insuring deposits ten
years later, after the predicted debacle, the government has yet to fully address the
insuring of deposits without regard to risk. Worse than that, extrapolating the theory of
insured deposits, it has created the “too big to fail” theory by rescuing the worst managed
banks, such as Continental Illinois.
In Grey’s first year in office, he had to grapple with the failure of Manning Savings and
Loan in Chicago. “The $117 million thrift had failed after growing rapidly, not by
attracting local deposits but by using deposits from deposit brokers to invest in
questionable real estate ventures. They had overdosed on brokered deposits.” This 1982
failure was the first warning of the damage done to the industry and ultimately to the
taxpayer by eliminating the limit of 5% brokered deposits to total deposits. The limit had
been established by the FHLBB in 1963, to shut the door on the thrifts’ bidding up the
cost of this source of money, in turn stimulating risky investments trying to pay for this
high-cost money and make a profit.
Grey knew the background of brokered deposits. He could see what had happened at
Penn Central and Manning Savings, and he initiated action to eliminate FSLIC insurance
protection for brokered deposits. This P.R. man from San Diego, this regular guy, this
cheerleader, understood the impending disaster and took and took courageous action.
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Courageous in that he would end up opposing the industry as well as Don Regan, the
father of brokered deposits. But Grey made progress when Bill Isaac, Chairman of the
FDIC, gave his support and the FHLBB approved the brokered-deposit limitation, to go
into effect October 1, 1984. Grey’s arguments were supported by brokered deposits
increasing form $3 billion at the end of 1981 to $29 billion at the end of 1983. His
recommendation resulted in several years of personal abuse and frustration.
The industry, with its great lobbying strength, later highlighted by the activities of the
“Keating Five,” thought they had installed a cheerleader as chairman of the FHLBB, but
what they got was a public servant, identifying the industry’s hurtling toward financial
disaster, and with a plan Congress started hearings on the proposed regulation, but it
didn’t have much of a chance. Led by Danny Wall, Staff Director of the Senate Banking
and Urban Affairs Committee, coached, funded, and entertained by the thrift lobby,
“legislation was introduced that would have gutted Grey’s brokered-deposit regulation.
The California S&L Commissioner, Larry Taggart, warned a Washington banking law
conference that cutting off the supply of 80% of the money flowing into the S&L, would
do great damage as the only problem was occasional bad management. He didn’t discuss
high-yield CDs sucking up savings accounts pumping it into thrifts that could only
complete the equation by chasing higher-return, higher-risk projects.
The body blow to Grey’s solution came from a different direction. The First Atlantic
Investment Corporation Securities Inc. (FAIL) of Miami and the Securitites Industry
Association sued in federal court to have Grey’s brokered-deposit regulation overturned.
On June 20, 1984 FAIL won a victory, when Federal Judge Gerhard Gessell ruled that
the brokered-deposit ban was illegal and that action for such a band had to come from
Congress.
Grey was under attack from many directions. The Washington jungle fighters were at
work and at various times it was reported that he was fired, under FBI investigation, and
messing up his expense accounts. The FBI cleared him on all charges, but he must have
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learned how hard it is to try to play offense and defense at the same time. He later settled
a $28,000 expense question with some embarrassment.
Grey was determined, despite setbacks, and used speeches during 1984 to warn of the
impending disaster. He emphasized brokered deposits, risky lending, direct investments,
and inaccurate appraisals, and reintroduced risk-based insurance. In January of 1985, he
attacked the other end of the problem. If he could not turn the valve to show the pressure
of money, he would try to curb its excessive risk. The new proposal would limit direct
investments to 10% of thrifts, total assets and would limit growth to 25% a year. Some
argue that growth at this rate will produce a rate of change beyond managements’
competence to control, but some thrifts were then growing at rates of 100 to 500%!
Grey’s new regulation was scheduled to go into effect in March, 1985.
Congressional hearings were scheduled for late March, after 220 House members signed
a resolution asking the Thrift Bank Board to delay implementation. Eventually, despite
opposition and personal attacks, Grey got this new regulation. The league’s good thrifts
became increasingly aware of what the crooks were doing to their industry. Senator
Proxmire, Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, provided steady support and, in
time, St. Germain backed the bill.
The new rules were useful, and apparently Grey thought that 700 additional examiners
were, too. Their inspection quickly showed a substantial number of thrifts requiring
seizure, but such seizure would require funds to pay off the deposit-insurance obligation.
By 1986, the FSLIC reserve had plummeted from $6 billion in two years to $2.4 billion.
In 1985, the Thrift Board was recommending a “recap” with as much as $25 billion in
new funds to shut thrifts. This inevitably provoked opposition from both the good thrifts
and the crooks. The good thrifts would have to fund the money, the crooks would have
been put out of business, so both opposed. After two years of opposition, in April, 1987,
the bank board sued Don Dixon and Vernon Savings for $540 million.
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Dixon had been one of the early crooks, but Congressman Jim Wright had helped his
Texas constituent fight off regulation. After the law suit, Wright, the Speaker of the
house, gave his support. By then, the reduced version of shut-down money was $15
billion. In May, the Senate passed $7.5 billion and the House $5 billion. With such
delay, costs were running $10 million a day supporting these “brain dead” thrifts.
Congress finally passed a $10.8 billion recap bill in August of 1987.
In February, 1989, the Bush Administration, recognizing hundreds of these bankrupt
thrifts, proposed legislation that was eventually passed in modified form in August of
1989. The Financial Institutions Reform Recovery and Enforcement Act of 1989
authorized an additional $50 billion of borrowing. The taxpayer was expected to cover
75%, the prudent and healthy thrifts the rest. “FIRREA” abolished the bank board and
FSLIC. The FDIC, under Bill Siedman, integrated FSLIC.
Congress was now on a legislative roll, and mandated higher-risk-based net-worth
standards such Grey advocated five years earlier. To show their constituents how serious
Congress was about this problem, they put to work enough of the 19,000 staffers to
produce a 393-page document detailing the new act. Nowhere could you find the words
“We’re sorry,” but it did tell exactly “how net worth should be calculated; it cut back on
the range of allowable investments by even well capitalized and well run thrifts; and, it
required that thrifts increase the percentage of assets devoted to housing related activities
to 70% up from the 60% level mandated two years earlier.
With this money and new people politically unencumbered by the sorry history of
dissipation of taxpayer money, the government proved again that no matter how bad the
problem was it could figure out how to fix it and make it worse. The Bush administration
was very expert on the financing, as the new Resolution Financing Corporation bonds
were included in government revenue, but the money spent cleaning up the mess was “off
budget,” so the year’s net effect was a $14 billion reduction in the apparent deficit.
The FDIC moved quickly to close another 200 thrifts, those insolvent ones, which were
daily wasting more taxpayer money. Bill Seidman, the head of FDOC, said, “The
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amount of real estate that will be up for sale is likely to exceed $100 billion, so it is a
huge task, the biggest liquidation in the history of the world.” Seidman set the tone for
the indiscriminate speed intended in dumping this distressed merchandise. “Our basic
policy is that every asset is for sale at the current appraised value. We don’t believe we
are in the business of speculating on asset value.”
The bad thrifts had created a new art out of balance-sheet accounting. In a growing
market, there is always a tendency to overvalue, that’s why there are reserve
requirements. The crooks had many techniques, one of which was “flipping” real estate
or trading it with other crooks at increasing fictional value for the cosmetic benefit of the
balance sheet. They could quadruple values in a few hours.
The bubble broke, as the market was over-built and the empty offices could not be
ignored any longer. In Texas, the break in oil prices was a contributing factor. With
Seidman’s haste, the values plummeted as in any fire sale. Billions could have been
saved with a longer term plan. Quickly the smart-money guys moved in, such as the Bass
brothers from Texas, and the takeover artist, Ronald Perelman. The buyers of this
heavily discounted merchandise were known as private investor groups, “PIGS.”
The best one-liner describing the government technique was that it “privatized the profits
and socialized the losses. The new administration struggled to resolve the problem
within the “no new taxes, read my lips” guidelines. The media covered the downward
spiral with more attention than most exhibited five to six years earlier when Grey was
struggling to head off disaster. That part of the media still searching for truth would do a
service reviewing how well it studied Grey’s plans compared to how quickly printed
attacks on him leaked by Keating’s attorneys.
October 31, 1988: Business Week “The S&L Mess and How to Fix It” points out that the
famous Marshall Plan after World War II, did important rebuilding work for about $50 or
$60 billion in 1988 dollars. What might $150 billion have done if invested in education
and training instead of the thrift waste?
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January 16, 1989: Business Week, “The Great S&L Giveaway” describes the “outrageous
giveaway,” “riskless deal,” as government effectively nationalizes insolvent thrifts.
January 30, 1989: FORTUNE points out that profits from 2,000 healthy thrifts are barely
enough to pay interest on clean up costs.
January 31, 1989: Wall Street Journal : “S&L mess isn’t all bad, at least for lawyers who
were regulators.” It describes how a former Wall Street lawyer, who helped write
deregulation law, was now helping a New York law firm, Freid, Frank, generate $12
million in billings. By 1988, the FSLIC had 200 in house attorneys but also spent $110
million in outside fees.
Wall Street Journal also featured “Wall Street firms battle for profitable role in thrift
rescue. Shearson offering a no strings financial deal shocking Drexel, Bear Stearns, and
Merrill.” Fees were as high as $20 million on a $200-million deal with five times the
average underwriting commission on investment-grade corporate bonds. No wonder
speculative capitalism has such priority. Why should one waste time trying to build and
sell something when enormous fees can be made on the downside of the speculative
curve as well as on the upside? The fees were part of the greatest pricing scam in the
history of capitalism, a percentage of the deal with little reference to value added,
services rendered, creativity or risk. The labor-value theory of both Smith and Marx was
lost in the mists of time.
Business Week set the tone on January, 1989, “The smart money in S&L bailouts offer fat
tax breaks for fat-cat investors.” It describes how the tax benefits will shelter other
company profits.
February 20, 1989: Business Week, “Bush S&L plan full of good intentions and holes.”
Locking-the-barn-door-after-the-horse-is-stolen mood imposed new rues such as the
elimination of goodwill as capital; 1,300 out of 3,000 can’t meet the 6% tougher capital
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requirement. In a poor economy, with the rush of punitive legislation, well run thrifts
were being pushed over the brink into insolvency.
February 27, 1989: Robert Kuttner in Business Week observes that either market
discipline or good regulation was needed but the situation was the worst of both worlds.
May 7, 1989: New York Times, “How many more big bailout bills will the taxpayer have
to face before Congress finally understands that uncle Sam is a lousy banker?”
May 22, 1989: FORTUNE “This is a dirty business.” The Resolution Trust Corp. is the
final resting place of $300-500 billion of assets, including $100 billion in disposable real
estate.
October 27, 1989: Wall Street Journal, “The reality of life in modern America is that if
you want to wreck something that works, let it fall into the hands of Congress.”
November 6, 1989: Business Week, “The El Dorado of Impaired Assets; Everything
Must Go.” “The RTC’s risky sell off of $300 billion worth of assets from failed S&Ls
has workout pros salivating.” It describes Wall Street’s plan to turn thrifts’ “trash into
cash.”
January, 1990: Wall Street Journal, “Junk Holdings Swell Cost of S&L Bailout.”
February 5, 1990: Business Week, “The Thrift Mop-Up is Already a Mess.”
September 10, 1990: FORTUNE “S&Ls: Where did all those billions go?” This colorful
article shows a Sherlock Holmes type tracking footprints. In the center, a chart shows the
damage in 1990, as $147 billion, growing by 2030, with interest, to an astronomical $647
billion.
!First step: $25 billion is the estimated loss due to the original mismatch of
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high-cost borrowing versus mandated low-fixed-rate mortgages.
!Second step: $28 billion in losses on risky real estate projects pumped up
by 1982 deregulation, funded by brokers deposits, stimulated by 1982 tax
laws, then hurt by 1986 tax law.
!Third step: $14 billion in excessive operating costs as the industry went
into accelerated growth, fueled by the brokered deposits and protected by
insurance
! Fourth step: $14 billion in premium prices paid to get brokered deposits,
an extra half to three-quarters of a point. The worst thrifts paid the highest
rate. Even if their situation was hopeless, they figured they would live well
for a few more years.
! Step five: $5 billion for cost of crooks. In September 1990, the justice
department had charged more than 300 individuals and convicted 231.
Later, accounting firms and prestigious law firms, like Kaye Scholer, were indicted.
Considering the percentage of the total disaster, crooks like Charles Keating and
politicians inevitability as the brokered deposits with insured risk guaranteed the entry of
all types of high risk entrepreneurs and outright crooks. Why not? It was easier to buy a
thrift than a casino in Atlantic City, and the skim opportunities were better.
!Step six: $6 billion loss on more real estate investments, junk bonds, business and
personal loans.
!Step seven: $12 billion in government inefficiency in the sell-ff, sometimes too fast,
sometimes to slow.
!Step eight: $43 billion in government delay, by far the largest single amount According
to Fortune “by keeping hundreds of losers open rather than shutting them down in 1983,
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regulators ensured that S&Ls would continue to pay depositors interest they didn’t have,
cloaking their inadequacy behind government approved accounting gimmicks.” Fortune
blames the regulations and ignores the stonewall tactics of the league lobby, Congress
and executives. Underpaid, overmatched Grey had identified the problem and pushed his
solution. Few listened.
March 14, 1994: Forbes’ Ellie Winninghoff writes about “Smart Buyers, Dumb Buyers.”
By forcing busted S&L’s to dump junk bonds in a panicked market, Congress cost the
taxpayers billions of dollars and more or less guaranteed huge profits for well-heeled
bargain hunters. Wall Street loved it. The investment houses were like pigs rolling in
manure. They bought and put into inventory billions of dollars of face value in junk
bonds paying 20, 30 on the dollar. When the market turned, in 1991, the big Wall Street
houses made billions off their junk-bond holdings.
The moral s of this messy situation are quite clear: a) when politicians try to fix things,
they more often that not make them worse, and b) their bumbling actions often create
financial opportunities that are hidden from most people but are there for people who
know the ropes.
There is very little positive about this history. About 150 years of mistakes caused by
politics’ overwhelming common sense, buy short-term ad hoc law not properly integrated
with other actions of government, and by the presumption that complex, fast changing
matters can be legislated and centrally administered by government. Politics prevailed
from 1984, when Grey first initiated corrective action, until 1987 when incomplete action
was taken. From a process point of view, it doesn’t matter whether the responsible
politicians were effectively bought by the thrift lobby or uncomprehending of the loose
monster. Integration is also critical. When Volker, at the Federal Reserve, undertook his
campaign against inflation with a “the sky is the limit” attitude on interest rates, someone
should have recognized the need to unshackle the thrift industry, allowing marketdirected variable rates on both deposits and mortgages. The earlier resistance to variable-
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rate mortgages was political, not reasonable.
The damage from erroneous law with central administration can be put into perspective
by re-studying Alexis de Tocqueville’s delineation between central government as a
policy maker and central government as an administrator. The forefathers of political
freedom, Jefferson and Madison, and the great prophet of economic freedom, Adam
Smith, emphasized that both freedoms could with minimum government. John Stuart
Mill, in 1850, added the observation that good government can produce good ends by
advice, encouragement, and guidelines to the private sector, not by legislation.
De Tocqueville’s early warning received empirical support from the failure of central
administration in Russia and Eastern Europe. Additional proof can be found in the
repeated failures in socialized South America, compared to the progress of the Asian
“tiger” countries Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Some have called
them market-oriented and authoritarian, but the central authority works on economic
policy and tax incentives, not detailed administration.
Contemporary social philosophers, like Ludwig Von Mises, have covered the same
subject in books like “Human Action” and “Bureaucracy.” His book on twentieth
century government’s handling of the thrift industry. Hayek’s books, starting with “Road
to Serfdom in 1944, emphasized the impossibility of trying to centrally administer any
economy, as the variables of date, time, and attitude guarantee constant sufficiently to be
within the capability of human competence.
“We Still Don’t Get It! Blame the Crooks, Not the Failure of Government.”
The U.S. culture is conditioned to central-government responsibility, with a decreasing
ability to tell the truth about itself. Politicians of both parties blamed the S&L disaster on
deregulation and lack of regulatory supervision. A survey in June, 1990, by the New
York Times, reported that 49% of those polled blamed the S&L problem on bad
management and fraud at the thrifts; 25% on lack of supervision, and 17% both.
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Structural and process failure of government did not even get honorable mention, but the
Times article did not say what the questions were. The epistemological failure starts with
the media. A chronological search for root causes could include at least:
1800s – The states could have left the thrifts alone. Instead they layered on popularsounding legislation trying to eliminate all risk, all hurt, an impossible goal, producing
erratic legislation.
1800 Early 1900s – The government did not recognize the costs and risks of a separate
infrastructure. They could have used tax laws to encourage banks to assimilate home
mortgages. Similar tax incentives could have encouraged competition from companies
and credit unions. Creative financial engineering could have given tax incentives to
profit sharing/savings plans with opportunities to draw on funds for either home
mortgages or major medical.
1932–1934 – Hoover federalized the thrifts but made it optional with state charter. When
FDR reluctantly stopped bank runs with deposit insurance, a major mistake was made.
Any insurance should have been risk-oriented, or, if government mandated, it would be
privately provided. Privatization by definition would involve risk-based premiums and in
the subsequent speculative craze, no insurance would be available fro very high risk.
This is the type of fail-safe system that the decentralized “market” discipline will provide,
but not central government. Even if the variables could be programmed, the decisions are
adversary, political, short-term, and superficial. For these reasons, it is not surprising that
the government’s results are frequently wrong and the damage control even worse. The
latter is faulty because the visibility of the problem now involves placing responsibility,
in turn making the process even more political.
1960s – Lyndon Johnson’s “Guns and Butter” Program resulted in printing money and
inflation. He used the usual warrior-state-leader’s technique of debasing currency to try
to hide the cost of war. His erroneous view of both the function of government and its
ability to redistribute wealth put much of the money into enervating support for the
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disadvantaged and not into education and training. It accelerated a pattern of government
that eroded the creation of wealth and was a direct cause of inflation. The Republicans,
under Nixon, made it worse, continuing with an unfounded war, and welfare costs.
July, 1963 – FHLBB stops cut-throat competition for brokered deposits by imposing a
limit of 5% of assets. A limited action, but a good brake, that would have prevented the
speculative craze. Unfortunately, the inability to attract deposits resulted in eliminating
the brake in 1980. It was not changed from 5 to 20 or even 40%. It was eliminated.
1966 – Congress extends the interest rates from commercial banks to thrifts (Regulation
Q), presumably to try to provide low cost-mortgages. Later higher-paying CDs and
money market funds sucked out billions of depositors’ money.
1970s – Volker, the determined inflation fighter, took action to reduce inflation but put
the S&Ls into an impossible squeeze between high-cost money and governmentmandated low-cost fixed-rate mortgages.
1970s – Industry lobbied for variable-rate mortgages. Congress was not interested. In
the ‘70s, where other government action was causing inflation and then high interest
rates, sensible deregulation would have been both on deposits and mortgages. If
Congress worked on integrated plans, which it does not, tax relief could also have been
provided for the first mortgage to minimize the impact of variable rate mortgages.
Late 1970s – FHLBB recommends risk-oriented reserve rules. This also would have
minimized the problem. The industry successfully lobbied and prevented this proposal.
Later the 5%-reserve requirement was reduced to 3% without reference to risk. After the
problem became visible and political in 1988-89, in the midst of plummeting asset
values, government reacted with a 6% requirement, pushing good thrifts over the newly
difined insolvency line.
1978 – Congress passes “Right to Privacy Act.” Regulators later shutting thrifts for
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criminal acts could not search for information on criminal action.
1980 – Lobbyist and Senate aides slipped in an increase of deposit insurance from
$40,000 to $100,000 at a late hour in the course of passing the bill.
1982 – Congress passes another law allowing thrifts to invest up to 40% in nonresidential, makes variable-rate mortgages phase out Regulation Q and pay interest on
checking accounts. Some states outbid federal deregulation by eliminating any limit on
investment.
1983-86 – FHLBB, under Grey, tried to minimize the disaster by eliminating insurance
on brokered deposits, adding risk-oriented insurance, limiting direct investment to 10%,
limiting growth to 25% and creating a liquidation fund as high as $25 billion. There was
no action on any of these proposals until 1987, when criminal action was initiated against
Vernon Savings and Don Dixon. Another influential Congressman had earlier observed
that if Vernon Savings was being closed to embarrass Speaker Wright, then Grey should
be pleased that the Speaker was concerned with the homeless, because, after the end of
his term in June, 1987, Grey would be “sleeping on a grate.”
The political delays were caused by large amounts of lobbying money being spread
around Congress. Democratic Capitalism and the average taxpayer were, as usual, silent
and unrepresented. Inside Job provides a full view of the symbiotic relationship of
politicians with the free-spending thrift lobby and the extreme spending of the crooks.
The story of the politicians’ summoning the California regulators on the Lincoln
Savings/Charles Keating scandal is particularly depressing. When it was clear that they
couldn’t muscle the California regulators, who were threatening criminal action, the new
Chairman, Danny Wall, moved the whole investigation to Washington, an unprecedented
act in the 50-year history of the FHLBB, and a devastating blow to the morale of the
regulators.
During the time that the S&L crisis was developing, the oversight was provided by the
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FHLBB, whose Chairman was paid $79,000 a year. His field people made $14,000. He
certainly never had access to President Reagan, who never mentioned S&L after his 1982
deregulation party. Grey also didn’t have access to the Secretary of the Treasury. The
examiners were detail people, with little power, and easy to deflect.
The whole audit function could not have been weaker if it had been designed
deliberately. To get another 700 examiners, the argument was that there were so few
examiners that each had to cover forty-two thrifts. With current technology, an
automated control system could be designed to work on a national network. With the
“bells and whistles” automated on the exception principle, a small number of well paid,
sophisticated auditors, with decisive power, could run an effective system at a fraction of
the cost.
1996 was the 100th anniversary of the demise of the People’s Party. It should be
resurrected to tell the people the S&L story. The Populist failed the people and the cost
of that failure continues to affect both the economy and their sense of trust. The media
fails the people by reporting on the exciting, not the profound. The university fails by not
analyzing such egregious errors and recommending monetary programs relieved of shortterm political mistakes.
From the beginning of this republic, finance capitalism has been able to lobby
undemocratic privileges for the financial benefit of a few. From the beginning of this
republic, politicians have passed poorly designed and executed laws. Despite these
impediments there was enough growing freedom for the political/economic system to
steadily improve the lives of most. Today U.S. citizens are being warned, the standard of
living for most has stagnated, and millions have been effectively disenfranchised.
What has changed? Three things: The financial privileges are getting bigger, the
political mistakes are getting bigger and the world is becoming more competitive. World
competition now measures not only company performance, but also country performance.
A country that does not follow policies supporting its job-growth economy is penalized
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by slower growth. The U.S. cannot afford the $1/2 trillion waste of the nation’s surplus in
the S&L disaster. While most of the intellectual community continues to debate
abstractions, this country is in decline because of bad laws and worse execution.
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Chapter 9
Citizen Education for a Successful Democracy
To what extent should the enculturation of the young into the American
democracy be the major function of schools? If a major purpose of
schools is to teach the young their rights and responsibilities as citizens in
a democracy, then what should the schools teach? And what must
teachers know in order to teach these rights and responsibilities in
effective and responsible ways?252
-Roger Sodon
Through my two decades of presiding over a university, I cannot recall a
single serious faculty discussion of how undergraduate education could do
a better job of preparing students as citizens. The results of that neglect
are all too visible.253
-Derek Bok
The preface described my grandchildren developing their own capabilities in a
cooperative environment not in their education but rather in team sports or musical
groups. Each individual was motivated to work hard at their own development, to draw
on others in this development, and to help others in their efforts. This simple
arrangement produces superior results and provides fun and satisfaction.
252
Roger Sodon, editor, Democracy, Education, and the Schools (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass
Publishers, 1996): preface p. xi.
253
Derek Bok, President Emeritus, Harvard University, at the College of Holy Cross, Worcester, MASS,
Sesquicentennial Convocation, Sept. 17, 1993, Principal Address, reported in Holy Cross Crossroads,
September/October 1993, pp. 8-9.
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This arrangement of human affairs works well because it is based on the dual instincts of
individual ambitions and social cooperation. It seems natural and obvious but is the polar
opposite of a human history dominated by competition over territory or resources. As it
works better and makes people happy, it can be the foundation of every human enterprise.
In a company it can maximize results while elevating people. As an economic system it
can eliminate material scarcity while improving the quality of life. In a government it is
the way to serve the general welfare through participatory democracy. In the world, it
can build economic common purpose than can improve the standard of living of all and
eliminate violence. It is he secret to social progress as in each generation there are more
people reaching their potential having learned to function in a harmonious whole. More
and better educated people add to each generation’s knowledge proving a ratchet effect to
new knowledge and social progress.
This arrangement is both natural and rational. Natural because it is based on inate human
desires, rational as it can be demonstrated to produce superior results. The necessary
components are freedom and education.
Democracy depends on freedom and education; capitalism depends on freedom and
education. The great American democratic experiment for two centuries, based on
democracy and capitalism despite its imperfections, has allowed hundreds of millions to
live better and happier. Inspired by this success and conditioned by the failure of nonfree political-economic systems, the world is ready to move to democracy and capitalism,
to free market economies.
This returns to Roger Soden’s query, as education is the critical component, who is going
to teach the teachers about the latest refinements of democracy and capitalism? In a
closed society the answer is the state, in an open society it cannot be the state. Who then?
The citizen is ultimately responsible but this is circular as how can a poorly educated
citizen recognize the problem and find the solution. The answer is the university with
their mission to unify and elevate by using the simple arrangement of individual
development in a harmonious whole.
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This was the challenge by the eighteenth-century enlightenment summarized by
Condorcet (Chapter 3). John Stuart Mill almost a century later questioned how well the
challenge had been met: “How far the methods by which so many of the laws of the
physical world have been numbered among truths irrevocably acquired and universally
assented to, can be made instrumental to the formation of a similar body of received
doctrine in moral and political science.”254
Mill answered his own question by suggesting that the efforts of the university to build a
knowledge bas for improved organization of human affairs erred first by not identifying
and validating elementary truths upon which a more complicated structure could be
successfully added:
Students in politics thus attempted to study the pathology and therapeutics
of the social body, before they had laid the necessary foundation in its
physiology; to cure disease without understanding the laws of health. And
the result was such as it must always be when persons, even of ability,
attempt to deal with the complex questions of a science before its simpler
and more elementary truths have been established.255
The elementary truth for a successful free society is that each has the opportunity to
develop to their own full potential as part of an interdependent group. The first mission
of education then is to provide this opportunity for students to grow and relate. All other
parts of the culture should support this mission of education. It should be the first
requirement in universal education, not an accidental benefit of participating in team
sports or musical groups.
How is the United States educational system doing in this first requirement? Failing.
254
John Stuart Mill, A System of Logic (New York, Harper & Brothers: 1874) p. v.
255
ibid., p. 606.
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There is excessive individualism at best, kids shooting kids at worst. From infancy,
children need to learn to love not hate. Television and preschool education is the
incubator of character. This citizen-in-training needs to start early to learn trust, and
mutual respect. John Dewey summarized this early mission at the end of the nineteenth
century:
The sympathetic coordination of individual purpose with that of others in
common social endeavor, and in active mutual devotion to worthy
universal ideals.256
At the beginning of this century educators understood this elementary truth that education
begins with individual effort, an interdependent association, common purpose, and shared
ideals. At the end of the century interdependence, common purpose and shared ideals are
challenged weakening the use of this elementary truth.
Retired Harvard President Bok observed in the quote at the beginning of the chapter that
education students to be better citizens was not on the faculty’s agenda and “the results of
that neglect are all too visible.” Experts in the science of teaching have knowledge and
new technology available for the mission, but who is going to teach the teachers? The
post-modern cult dominates many universities where the concepts of common purpose
and shared ideals are regarded as anachronisms. It underscores the dilemma, if the
university is the logical place to unite and elevate citizens in a free society what will the
result be if many universities and professors regard these as quaint concepts from an
innocent past?
Every child from infancy in a free society needs to know how to pursue the mission of
life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. They need to be trained to function in a
harmonious whole. They need to learn that superior results, fun, and satisfaction are the
products of any endeavor where people share a sense of common purpose. This
256
John Dewey, The Early Works 1882-1888 Vol. 5 (London and Amstrerdam, Southern University Press,
Feffer & Simon Inc.), quoting National Educational Association procedures, p. 448.
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elementary truth should be the foundation of educational knowledge and it should be the
mission of citizen education.
But in an open society how are citizens educated to a common ideology without it
becoming unacceptable propaganda?
French intellectual Jean Franscois Revel emphasized this distinction:
The teacher can either teach or indoctrinate. When the teaching is more
important than the indoctrination, education fulfills its principal function
in the best interests of those who receive it and in the interest of
democracy. On the other hand, when indoctrination takes precedence, it
becomes harmful, an abuse of childish innocence, and substitutes
imposture for culture.257
The answer is a government that provides the broad mission and funds and universities
free to examine, test and promulgate the best of options, freely chosen. The university is
then the locus for both curricula and pedagogy. John Dewey challenged the university to
accept this vital role of a free society:
It is clear that our educational systems are in need of some kind of
direction and systematization from expert sources. If the government does
not furnish this, so much the greater the necessity for its being undertaken
on a voluntary basis. It must be assumed with the authority of science, if
without that of bureaucratic control. The universities are the natural
centers of educational organization, unless the chaos of centrifugal force is
to continue indefinitely. It is for them to gather together and focus the
best of all that interest in the great variety of present practice, to test it
scientifically, to work it out into shape for concrete use, and to issue it to
257
Jean Franscois Revel, The Flight from Truth, the Reign of Deceit in the Age of Information, (New York:
Random House, 1991) p. 302.
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the public educational system with the imprimatur, not of governmental
coercion, but of scientific verification. Organization on the basis of
cooperation, of free and full interaction of the various parts of our
educations system is a necessity.258
How would the first mission be funded to teach every child to love, not hate, to teach
them that their individual ambitions are best accomplished in a cooperative society. Most
citizens would be enthusiastic to sue their federal, sate and local taxpayer dollars to
define the curricula and pedagogy to accomplish such a purpose.
Presently federal funding has great influence in universities, but for other purposes.
Taxpayer dollars to assimilate, test and promulgate the most effective way to teach
children to love note hate is not a significant part of this federal funding.
Peter Brinelow in Forbes described “academic politics” with the observation that “some
of the bricks in the ivory tower are supplied by politicians. They are a mixed blessing.”
Brinelow did the scorekeeping on federal research grants directed to specific universities
for political reasons. It was over $800 million in the early 1990s, dipped to under $400
million during the “Republican revolution” in 1996 and then grew back to $800 million
in 1999.259
Children who are taught from infancy, first by television, the benefits of cooperation,
common purpose, shared ideals would not later invade schools and kill kids. The
Littleton, Colorado tragedy provoked the question, among others, of why the “jocks”
harassed the “nerds”. Both had been conditioned to differences and violence. They had
not been conditioned to understand and appreciate differences in any society. They had
not been taught mutual respect and cooperation.
258
John Dewey, The Early Works Vol. 5, pp. 282-3.
259
Peter Brinelow, “Academic Politics,” Forbes, Sept. 6, 1999, p.122.
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Two decades ago, a program was run in Lowell, Massachusetts in participatory
democracy. Children learned that society is made up of people with different talents and
interests but that society reached potential when each was given he opportunity to reach
full potential in their particular talent. In their school society, the “jocks” participated by
helping maintain their civil order. The “nerds” with skills on the calculator became
respected because they were necessary to handle the financial aspects of their endeavor.
There are numerous tests in numerous places similar to Lowell that regularly validate that
trust, mutual respect and cooperation produces superior results and is more fun.
Robert Owen, a pioneer democratic capitalist, learned that the training of cooperative
workers began at an early age.
The argument for democratic capitalism is that individuals innovate and produce best in
an environment of trust and respect.
Robert Own at New Lanark in the early nineteenth century (Chgapter3, p. 21) learned
how to improve his spinning mill’s results by better wages, shorter hours, better hosing
and the encouragement of sobriety. In time, he recognized that the character he admired
and sought in his workers was formed at a very early age.
Owen understood that for workers to reach their fullest individual development they had
to first learn how to function in a harmonious whole. Although this instinct is natural to
humans it had been suppressed by thousands of years of predatory domination. Owned
understood to let it flourish in his New Lanark schools:
He brought together upwards of a hundred children, from one to six years
of age, under two guardians. No attempt was made to teach them reading
or writing not even their letter; nor had they any set lessons at all. They
were trained to habits of order and cleanliness; they were taught to abstain
from quarrels, to be kind to each other. They were amused with childish
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games and with stories suited to their capacity. Two large, airy rooms
were set apart, one for those under four years and done for those from four
to six. This last from was furnished with paintings, chiefly of animals, and
a few maps. It was also supplied with natural objects form the gardens,
fields, and woods. These suggested themes for conversations, or brief,
familiar lectures; but there was nothing formal, no tasks to be learned, no
readings from books.260
Most mill areas were filled with urban blight, the life expectancy was low, the children
diseased, and crime prevalent. At New Lanark, out of three thousand children who had
worked and studied there over a twelve-year period, only fourteen had died and not on
has suffered criminal punishment.261 Owen had defined concepts, provided protocols,
and proved that it all worked superbly.
Owen had found truths on the factory floor that American social philosopher John Dewey
found in scholarly analysis. Dewey emphasized human duality and instructed his
students: “Individuality cannot be opposed to association. It is through association that
man has acquired his individuality and it is through association that he exercises it.”262
Owen also saw that providing the child, ages 4-6, opportunities to follow his or her
curiosity about natural events was a precursor to teaching the child how to think. Dewey
later expressed it this way: “The native and unspoiled attitude of childhood, marked by
ardent curiosity, fertile imagniation, and love of experimental inquiry, is near, very near
to the attitude of the scientific mind.”263 It was this capacity to think, Dewey believed
that was a foundation for the successful democracy.
260
Robert Dale Owen, Robert Owen’s son, Threading My Way, (New York: Augustus M. Kelley, 1967,
first published 1874) p. 35.
261
Ibid.
262
John Dewey and American Democracy, p. 44.
263
Dewey papers. “Lecture Notes Political Philosophy, 1892”, p. 38.
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A Challenge to Universities
The improvements which, in modern times, have been made in several
different branches of philosophy, have not, the greater part of them, been
made in universities; though some no doubt have. The grater part of
universities have not been very forward to adopt those improvements,
after they were made and several of those learned societies have chosen to
remain, for a long time, the sanctuaries in which exploded systems and
obsolete prejudices found shelter and protection, after they had been
hunted out of every other corner of the world.264
-Adam Smith,
1776
In the first part of this chapter the responsibility of the government to fund and the
university to teach children to love not hate was described. This lesson is the elementary
truth upon which the superior economic system, democratic capitalism, is base, upon
which participatory democracy depends, and upon which world economic common
purpose can develop.
The university is failing to present this elementary truth. This section examines how well
the university is teaching the means to the end of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness” through the combination of democracy and capitalism. Is it possible that the
elementary truth is integrated into the university’s presenting of democracy and
capitalism? Are the concepts of cooperation, trust and mutual respect self-evident in this
presentation?
Unfortunately, no. The university not only does not teach how to develop character
necessary to a successful democracy, from infancy, most of the universities add to this
failure with a distorted presentation of democracy and capitalism. This failure of both
omission and commission is in four general categories:
264
Smith, Wealth of Nations, p. 727.
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 The combinations of capitalism and democracy that flows from the
elementary truth of how people relate cooperatively is note presented for
student examination.
 Energized by criticism of the excesses of other forms of capitalism the
universities teach young reform minded students a contempt for commerce
and a love of state. They teach them to be collectivists. They do not teach the
protocols of governance necessary for participatory democracy, and an
understanding of the distinction between central government policy and
suffocation central administration.
 The university does not teach reform minded students the rudiments of
economics and finance necessary to slow, then reverse the financialization of
the economy. Lacking this knowledge, reform is note pursued to eliminate
government errors and special privileges.
 The university does not properly equip citizens to make foreign policy a
matter for political debate, note the prerogative of an imperial president. The
United States will move successfully from the world’s super power to moral
and economic leader only if citizens understand world politics and the ways to
economic common purpose.
Part of the reason for failure is the academician’s contempt for commerce and instinctive
love of the state, a legacy tat goes back to Plato. An additional reason is the limitations
of single discipline scholarship that thwarts the sence of context vital to an educated
person, and prevents examination of how democracy and capitalism can be integrated in
the most synergistic way.
The enlightenment challenge had been met, the end confirmed as attainable, and the
means to end had been specified. Unfortunately, as Adam Smith lamented, academia had
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not structured the process necessary to unify this knowledge for optimum governance of
human affairs. Because of this default, the coherent system was neither assimilated nor
promulgated by educational institutions. Instead, alternative systems were espoused and
tried, with tragic results to society.
As the intellectual community had never organized the process to confirm the end and
analyze the means, it now denies the end and contributes to confusion about the means.
Many agree that the world is moving toward “free markets,” but education neither defines
or refines it. As a consequence, there is a death struggle among forms of capitalism.
Government leaders are not educated to design a monetary system capable of handling
the needs of global capitalism, dominant speculation results. Business leaders are not
educated to involve people and distribute surplus as the way to maximize profits.
This educational opportunity and obligation will note be met unless the intellectual
community reexamines its fundamental contempt for capitalism and its abandonment of
idealism in the light of how democratic capitalism can both eliminate material scarcity
and elevate lives.
Such a reexamination is multidisciplinary by nature, a complex effort to assimilate
information, much of it contradictory, and to analyze, prioritize, and synthesize that
information into an integrated, coherent whole. The product, putting the human being
into past and future context, is the original mission of a liberal-arts education. But
academia has never had the capacity for multi-discipline examination and now the
cultural conditioning of contempt for capitalism and the abandonment of idealism ahs
institutionalized a large wall of resistance.
John Dewey understood the weakness of single-discipline study:
For one danger of higher education, from the point of broad human
interests, is that with high specialization there is increasing likelihood of
the center of scholarship getting removed from the mass of men, and the
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things of daily life. Culture becomes tangential to life, not convergent.265
To be coherent, the educational offering needs to include an understanding of the
conflicts in capitalism, the abandonment of idealism by many, and the forms of
collectivism with an elite still trying to micromanage complex affairs top-down. Students
should have the opportunity to debate all of these propositions:

That democratic capitalism is the only common ideology that can unite
all in a nation and can unite nations. Democratic capitalism is based
on a moral imperative. However, it can reach a larger audience as a
pragmatic argument that freedom-based democratic governance
benefits from the participation of all, and consequently is the most
effective way to maximize surplus in a company or manage
government or education.

That global capitalism is being corrupted by finance capitalism’s
domination of commerce. In the 1990s, the economies in Asia had
been growing and improving the lives of millions. Their economic
damage is a tragic case-study of a wrong turn for society led by the
United States (Book I, Chapter 7)

That society cannot sustain itself without a common ideology.
Democratic capitalism can be that ideology, but it cannot succeed
without the support of the intellectual community, many of whom now
reject the concept of social progress.

Acceptance of Marx’s advice that society is dependent on commerce
and that social progress is possible only by moving to a superior form
of commerce. Movement towards a superior form of commerce has
always been in the direction of more freedom, moving from the slave
265
John Dewey, The Early Works Vol. 5 Essay: A Pedagogical Experiment, p. 285.
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society of Athens, from the serfdom of the Middle Ages, from the
wage-slavery of mercantilism, to the educated, independent, involved
associates of the Information Age.

Recognition that superior form of commerce was defined by Adam
Smith, tested by Robert Owen, and refined by John Stuart Mill. It is
democratic capitalism, where the participation of all in a harmonious
environment maximizes surplus, it is an industrial philosophy and
practice regularly validated today by thousands of democratic
capitalist companies (Book I, Chapter 4).

Recognition that the profit-sharing and stock-ownership features of
democratic capitalism can distribute wealth broadly, motivating the
associates while energizing the economy (Chapter 7).

Understanding that global capitalism is not a monolithic enterprise run
by predatory and greedy capitalists. It often is, and can be, the
democratic economic force that eliminates scarcity and the moral force
that uplifts all society. It can be a source of power diffusion, not
concentration.

Because the predatory forces of war and imperialism have lost
economic logic, the goal of world peace and plenty is attainable in the
twenty-first century.

Acceptance that the violent events of the twentieth century did not
invalidate the goals of human governance through a rational order,
rather the persistent violence has been caused by government errors by
leaders poorly trained in universities.
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
That, despite the failure of communism and socialism, collectivists
ignore the evidence and still try to micro-manage complex societies,
suffocating participatory democracy, wasting needed funding, and
failing on their social mission.

Recognizing that the optimism of the Enlightenment is still
appropriate. People can organize society to attain full potential when
the means is to free individuals for full development as part of a
harmonious whole.
This educational offering of collectivism is combined with a limited examination of
democratic capitalism. Young students with the greatest sensitivity to the human
condition and the greatest desire for a contributory career, are the most damaged. At that
beautiful moment when students sense a unity among people and feel a desire to make it
a better world, they are deflected to systems that do not work, and they have no
opportunity to inspect the one system tat does work based on these opposite views:

Mercantilism is the cruel economic mechanism. Democratic
capitalism both maximizes surplus and improves the quality of life.

There is an inherent tension between ultra capitalism and democracy,
but, there is an inherent symbiosis between democratic capitalism and
democracy.

Ultra capitalism’s mission is to maximize profits and stock price,
democratic capitalism’s ultimate mission is the feed the world, unite in
economic common purpose, and stop war.

Ultra capitalism treats the employee as a cost commodity to maximize
surplus; democratic capitalism elevates the associates to maximize
surplus.
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
Maldistribution of wealth is inherent in ultra capitalism; democratic
capitalism through profit-sharing and ownership distributes wealth
broadly.
Some students become bureaucrats, educators, community leaders, and then they pass on
the same cultural conditioning to the next generation, meanwhile treating capitalism as
the enemy of social progress. The bureaucrats so trained are suspicious and adversarial
with an instinct to police and punish industry. Generic capitalism is assumed guilty
without a trial. Mercantilists and speculative capitalists regularly provide greedy
examples to refresh this view. Captains of industry who pay themselves millions of
dollars a year have no sensitivity to how their excesses help sustain public contempt.
Lacking common ideology, the United States will eventually go into decline. Ironically,
for most citizens the common ideology has not changed: It is the hope for a better life for
themselves and their kids. What has changed is the strength of the corruptions and the
academic disinterest in examining that capitalism which captures the power of
participatory democracy with the energy of capitalism.
There is an evolving technology that can revolutionize education in the sense that each
individual can be presented with the opportunity for continuing self-development. The
same delivery technology can sensitize people how to live in a harmonious whole. Yes,
people can be sensitized to love, not hate, if their mental bombardment, starting with TV
at the earliest age, includes the benefits of social cooperation.
Public Education Can be Reformed by the Principles of Democratic Governance
No part of American life that could be improved more dramatically than a conversion of
public education from the present top-down, command-and-control system to the
elementary principles of participation and cooperation. Instead, disenchantment with
public-school education provokes debate on national standards, charter schools, school
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choice, vouchers, and trashing the teachers’ unions. The common denominator is
running away from the problem.
The simple mission of developing both sides of the child’s personality, individual skills
and capacity to contribute to a harmonious whole, is well done by many teachers. The de
facto mission, however, for the key person, the principal, is not now development of both
sides of the students, but keeping parents away from the superintendent, boosting tests
scores, and getting reports in on time.
The structure is worse than common-and-control. In many cases, an ill-informed
interpretation of decentralization resulted in “decentralization” to school boards which
then become involved in administrative details. The result, in most cases, is the worst of
both worlds, a principal with a confusion of direction and little freedom to release the
vitality of both teachers and students.
In every effort to free the system to release the latent energy of people there has to be a
key leadership level. In education the chief “emancipator” should be the principal. The
end is participation and contribution from teachers and students but the means is the
principal with the requisite authority and responsibility for results. Authority and
responsibility can be passed on to the teachers but the principal is key to accountable
performance to the community and key to holding each teacher to accountable
performance. This form of organization is regularly validated by certain principals who
assume the prerequisite authority and free the teachers to educate students far beyond
other schools in their immediate environment.
There are so many positives in education: Most teachers are good people attracted to the
opportunity to contribute, to make a difference. There are also many experts in the
science of teaching and new delivery systems that can make education a continuous
process from cradle to grave.
What is lacking is a clear mission and funding from the federal government to the
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universities to examine, test and present the best ways for very young people to learn
trust, mutual respect and cooperation. This fundamental needs to be followed by a
mission and funding that challenges the university to finally assume its role as the
scientific assimilator, tester and promulgator of knowledge about the best organization of
human affairs.
This is a country based on political and economic freedom, democracy and capitalism.
But, which democracy? That which tends to anarchy, that which tends to suffocating
central administration, or the one that depends on the participation of educated citizens?
Which capitalism? The one that maximizes profits, concentrates wealth and demeans
people or the one that maximizes profits, distributes wealth broadly and elevates people?
The university that can fulfill this responsibility and give the world its best ever chance in
the twenty-first century is not the university that has abandoned idealism. It is the
university that is excited by the potential of people and society and is prepared to assume
the role as the locus of knowledge on how each individual and society in general can
reach full potential.
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Chapter 10
ERISA
How Government Blew the Opportunity to Invest Your Pension $
In 1974 your government passed ERISA to protect your pension. Studebaker had gone
broke ten years earlier and stiffed their pensioners. Politicians competed for credit for
passing this new law.
The law did not anticipate that most of the money would go into driving up the value of
stocks, not into job-growth investment. The law did not anticipate that the resulting bull
market would impose a short-term earnings pressure on companies that resulted in
sacrificing long-term growth and the final value of your pensions. The law did not
anticipate that ERISA induced easy credit would cause asset inflation in stocks leading
to the crash that damaged many of your pensions. The law did not anticipate that the
same easy credit would fund misadventures like Enron that destroyed many pensions.
The law did not anticipate that corporate raiders would use your pension funds to pay for
takeovers. The law did not anticipate that the short-term earnings pressure in the bull
market would reduce the dividend return from the 6% long-term average to 1% during
the bull market, now recovered to only 2%. The law did not prevent many companies
from using the bull market values to stop funding your pension in order to hype shortterm earnings leaving many companies without the money to pay pensions. The law did
not anticipate that the FED would drop interest rates to zero to pump up the real estate
market but also cut your pension bond income in half causing more pension plans to be
out of money. The law did not prevent the easy credit from stimulating deals that made
the dealmakers immediately wealthy but your pension poorer in the long-term. The law
did not anticipate that private venture companies would be allowed to cut pensions and
medical benefits to pay themselves huge fees and special dividends. Finally, the law did
not prevent the finance capitalists from extracting hundreds of billions of dollars a year
for handling your money no matter how poor the performance, or how much damage they
had done to your pension savings.
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Greedy people on Wall Street and CEOs contributed to this corruption of capitalism but
the root cause is bad design by your government. They did not structure the plan using
tax policies and regulation in order to accomplish the stated mission. In 2006 your
government passed a pension reform act that addressed none of these basic questions but
tried to put band aids on the government insurance of pensions leaving the usual question
of how long it will be before the mounting damage is passed onto the taxpayer. You will
be doubly hurt by your government, a badly damaged pension and your taxes to pay for
the bail out.
You need to determine how much of the trillions of dollars that should have made your
retirement comfortable is in fact invested in economic growth or how much of it is still
sloshing around Wall Street providing substantial annual consumption for you money
managers. You the people are responsible for deciding how your retirement money is
invested. Those now making the decisions for you are financially motivated for their own
short-term gain, not to maximize the amount of money available to you on retirement.
Because of this, you need to understand the conflict between democratic capitalism and
ultra capitalism and why the former will maximize your retirement income, and the latter
can destroy your savings. You need to learn how to reform the economic system by
moving from ultra-capitalism to democratic capitalism.
Democratic capitalism produces more wealth, broadly distributed, through the
participation of wage earners in forms of ownership. The work culture is one of trust and
cooperation. Ultra-capitalism is a combination of modern mercantilism in which the wage
earner is treated as a disposable cost commodity with a finance capitalism that is
dominant over rather than supportive of economic freedom. The work culture is one of
fear and intimidation.
Your study has critical social implications because the economic system that will provide
you the greatest amount of money in retirement is, at the same time, the economic system
that will maximize domestic and world economic growth, benefiting an increasing
number of participants and providing tax revenues to help the rest.
- 268 -
To assist you in your study and discussion are references in this article to books including
my book Democratic Capitalism, The Way To a World of Peace and Plenty. At the end of
the article there is a glossary of terms, an understanding of which is necessary in your
study.
You will find that democratic capitalism was well defined by Adam Smith in 1776 but
that his conditions for success have never been observed. It is understanding these
conditions and application of your political power for reform that will bring democratic
capitalism to full potential and provide you and your family with a comfortable
retirement.
Congress passed ERISA 266 in 1974 to protect your pensions. It was a potentially
dramatic moment in the history of capitalism because much as $100 billion a year was
mandated for investment. Unprecedented amounts of patient capital would be invested in
order to provide retirement income many decades in the future, along with a “capital
wage” from dividends, averaging 6% at that time, that could be spent or saved to the
further benefit of the economic growth.
Where would it go and how would it get there? The possibilities were exciting: stronger
economic growth by companies issuing stock for investment in facilities and new product
development and public investment in education, urban transit, research in new energy
sources, and environmental needs.
Corporate America initiated the short-term earnings pressure by the way they measured
performance by their money managers. The analysts at the beginning of the bull market
were usually young low paid MBAs. With all of the attention on quarterly earnings
against prediction they became rock stars and many moved up into millions of dollars a
year compensation. In most Board meetings the first featured event was review of how
these outside observers described the company’s fortunes.
Directors and executives of public companies were personally threatened by ERISA and
rushed to insulate themselves from responsibility for investment. They did this with
266
Employees’ Retirement Insurance Act
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layers of advisors outside the company. Company pension committees then reviewed the
performance of the money managers quarterly and then fired those whose performance
for the year was not competitive with other managers. This was the genesis of the
perversion of patient capital to short term that changed the nature of capitalism in
America. The discipline to invest surplus for long-term benefit is the essence of
capitalism and the results of which cannot be measured in less than three years. The shift
to short-term measurement eventually provoked cost cutting as the quick way to improve
earnings.
Corporate America gave the money to outside managers and measured then on quarterly
earnings per share and fired them on annual results that were less than their competitors.
This same short-term measurement was applied to corporate performance and began the
shift the economy away from “stakeholder” capitalism to “shareholder” capitalism. The
former meaning the long-term obligation to customers, shareholders, employees,
suppliers, and the community; the latter meaning only immediate profits for the owners
of stock.
This new capitalism succeeded because management so motivated can produce quick
profits simply by stopping long-term investment in new products and facilities. They fire
people by the thousands, “downsizing” was the expression. The media and the Business
Schools celebrated this “American Model” as though they had found the long sought
“new mode of production.” There were a lot of riches being visibly enjoyed by a few.
The $100 billion a year was not invested it was given to wall Street with the assumption
of investment. The investment bankers would handle the bonds and the stock market
would move the money coming into the market into new growth stock. Wasn’t that their
function? This simple dynamic, however, had a few important conditions to be
understood and observed by the designers of ERISA. For the free market to reach full
potential money must be neutral, that is, without influence on the commercial process.
This, in turn, required that asset inflation in either stocks or real estate must be controlled
by tax policies, bank and margin requirements. The obligation of government to control
currency and credit for the general welfare meant that the tendency towards excessive
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liquidity, too much money, would have to be anticipated and controlled. Too much
money always gravitates to speculation.
Too bad! None of this was done and most of the money flowed into the stock market and
not enough of it flowed out in new stock for growth. The money had no where to go but
up and the longest bull market in history began. The pension money flowing into the
stock market soon dominated the economy with enormous rewards or punishment for a
few cents change in quarterly earnings per share. Instead of the peoples’ money
democratizing capitalism, it was perverted into a new mercantilism in which firing people
was the way to produce quarterly earnings. Stocks that had been held for six years on
average were sold in less than a year. Dividends shrank from 6% to less than1% in the
bull market. Despite the greater volume of transactions, fees for handling the money went
higher. Mutual fund fees reached ten times that of index funds that produced the same or
better results. Profits from financial services exploded from 4% of total corporate profits
to over 40%.
In this environment, CEOs’ overriding consideration was building up and protecting the
short-term price of the stock. Shortfall of a few cents a share in quarterly earnings per
share could wipe hundreds of millions, even billions, of dollars off market value. A high
stock price also made acquisitions possible, and a low one made takeover more likely.
They “smoothed earnings” by dipping into inventory or bad-debt reserves; slipped into
“creative accounting” to prevent a miss against quarterly targets; and finally some
plunged criminally into faking earnings. CEOs trapped in this dynamic hoped that the
shortfall was temporary and that good times coming would correct the books. When this
did not happen, they were hooked on faking earnings.
Once CEOs were trained like Pavlov’s dog the Wall Street agenda was easily
implemented. Wall Street did not like dividends because they did not make money on
dividends and preferred that companies keep the cash and use it for stock buybacks or as
an attraction for a deal. Wall Street hates dilution so those companies thinking about
using the stock market for its original purpose of raising cash for investment decided not
to sacrifice stock price by dilution. On the all-important earnings-per-share upon which
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the price of the stock was based any addition of total stock would increase the divisor and
arithmetically reduce the earnings per share, e.p.s.
This short-term profit-pressure not only cut existing programs but also limited the amount
going into new investment. The expectation that ERISA money would flow through the
stock market into investment in the job-growth economy was incorrect. Some of it was
invested but most of it went into driving the values of stock up and up with much of it
being peeled off by those handling the money. Many of the apparent investments in new
equity issued were deals with the same short-term motivation to make lots of money at
the beginning of the deal with little risk
The wage earner at the time ERISA was designed should have expected a long-term
secure double-digit return on their pension investments, one-half from dividends and the
other half from appreciation. The expectation that dividends would continue to provide
about one-half of the total return was also a victim of the short-term pressure. Tax laws
encouraged savings in retirement funds like 401 (k) by allowing them in pre tax dollars
and tax laws allowed deferral of taxes until retirement but that provided the money
manager with a built in lock on the money. Tax-free dividends for the people would have
provided persistent pressure to distribute surplus in dividends not in stock buybacks or
deals but that did not happen and dividends during the Bubble economy shrunk in
absolute amounts and in percentage of profits paid out. After the Bubble burst dividends
recovered some but in late 2006 are only returning 2% and more money is still going into
stock buy backs to reduce the total shares in the divisor and arithmetically improve the
e.p.s.
The Congressional designers of ERISA believed in the free market in general terms but
did not understand these few conditions needed for the free market to spread wealth:

Capitalism succeeds by a discipline to invest surplus capital for long-term gain,
instead of short-term consumption. In your study learn how much of the trillions
of dollars of pension savings in the past thirty years went into consumption by
finance capitalists instead of investment for the benefit of the wage earner.
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
Economic freedom needs neutral money, a medium of exchange without influence
on the commercial process. Neutral money must be enough, but not too much,
patient, low-cost, and non-volatile.

Peace was Smith’s first condition for success of economic freedom because
nothing consumes more resources and destroys social cohesion more than war.
.
The following are the few rules that we would have included if we had been part of the
design of ERISA. The mission presumably was to direct the money into investments that
would provide the maximum amount of money for your retirement.
Public companies should be measured and held accountable to a three year running
average of sales growth, profits, and cash flow against management predictions.
It would be helpful in your investment decision to have a goal that balanced return
and security with the emphasis on security. If you feel that a 10-12% safe return is the
goal then a good start would be 6% dividends, the long-term average. If these
dividends were tax-free there would be persistent pressure on companies to make
dividends the highest priority next to reinvestment in growth. With half of he return in
dividends the goal for a modest long-term corporate profit growth of 5-7% is
consistent with increasing world competition
Tax-free dividends for low-and-middle income wage earners
Tax-free dividends would give the wage earner that long sought “capital wage” that
could be spent or saved for the benefit of the economy. The tax free feature would
insure pressure on companies to again distribute the surplus in growth investment
and dividends. Although the wage earner might spend some or all of the dividends for
a time the gross amount diverted from stock buy backs and non-strategic acquisitions
is so large that the final pension can still represent a 10% return.
Speculation with borrowed money should be limited.
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Our committee should discuss what neutral money is and how it can be provided. We
will learn that there never has been neutral money because our government has never
controlled asset inflation in stocks and real estate and in fact denies that it can be
done. It can be done with tax policies, margin and bank reserve requirements and
must be done to protect your retirement savings. Too much money, “excessive
liquidity” always gravitates to speculation or high-risk projects.
The rules are few and seemingly simple but require functional understanding of the
many variables in the economic equation. They are reviewed in the following with
regular reference to how they have impacted your retirement savings. Deeper study is
encouraged by references to books.
At the time of ERISA most pensions were defined benefit where the company was
responsible for paying a certain amount each month in retirement. Companies said that it
was their money because they had to pay a specific benefit on retirement. For this reason
they were able to take performance over estimate into current profits. In the quarter
century before the market crashed the estimate used on what the pension money would
earn was steadily increased from a conservative 6% to 11% or more. Historically half of a
double-digit return was dividends but they were being steadily reduced as part of the
return. At the time of ERISA the stock market valued earnings at about 7 times, that is a
dollar of earnings per share meant a stock price of $7. This was low as the long-term
average was 15 times. . As most of the hydraulic pressure went, not into new equity for
growth but rather into pushing up the value of stocks by the end of the century earnings
were valued at about 30 times. That same dollar of earnings was now worth $30 on the
market. Extraordinary amounts of personal wealth was produced by this phenomena.
As the pension portfolio grew in value and the return estimates became more aggressive
companies were able to describe their pension plans assets as “over funded” and many
declared a funding “holiday.” The motivation was to improve short-term earnings. After
the market went down many of these plans were in fact under funded. Steel, autos, and
airlines with the greatest concentration of defined benefit plans were hit hard and could
not pay the pensions in contradiction to the original mission of ERISA. Their obligations
- 274 -
were dumped on the PBGIC government insurance that was quickly exhausted with
further cost to be dumped on the taxpayer.
During this time retirement savings shifted significantly from defined benefit plans, with
an assured amount to be paid each month of retirement, to defined contribution in which
the company put a certain amount into the plan but the individual was responsible for the
“investment” decisions. In addition 401(k) plans became popular because the individual
was able to save from pre-tax dollars and most companies made some level of match with
the individual’s contribution.
During the same quarter century there was a dramatic shift in the distribution of corporate
surplus. There are four places the surplus can be distributed; reinvestment in growth,
dividends, stock buybacks and deals. Stock buy-backs took cash out of the company to
buy stock in the market theoretically improving the earnings per share because there were
fewer shares to divide into the earnings. Surplus used in acquisitions looked like
investment but most of the money went to the deal makers and in fact the acquired
company in many cases borrowed money to pay dividends and fees to the acquirers.
There was about $1 trillion dollars spent on stock buybacks and non-strategic acquisition
during the quarter century that could have been invested in growth programs,
maintenance, and facility replacement. It is now clear that major companies sacrificed
vital investments in their prime facilities. We now have CEOs of Long Island Lighting
explaining away thousands of suffering people without power as some type of act of God.
We have the CEO of BP Oil explaining how their transmission pipes in Alaska were so
eroded that they had to shut the line down adding to price volatility in gasoline
Corporate raiders showed the way by taking advantage of the easy credit amplified by the
flow of pension money to attack companies with a premium offer over the stock price
and then fire people and strip benefits to pay for the acquisition. Takeovers almost
always increased the price of the stock and for that short-term reason gained the support
of the money managers motivated to improve their standing in measurements such as the
Becker Median. This was an extraordinary perversion of capitalism: the very people
responsible for the future value of the peoples’ investment were financially motivated by
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the system to chose short-term results that cut back on long-term investment!
ERISA money turned into easy credit that drove the bull market and funded adventures
from LTCM to Enron. Global companies practiced wage arbitrage moving quickly into
the lowest wage opportunity with no thought of wages high enough for reciprocal
purchases without which free trade does not work. The Southeast Asian countries had
their economic momentum reversed by hot money and currency speculation. Muslim
leaders called America “economic imperialists.” Russia tried to move to this form of
capitalism with “shock therapy” with disastrous results.
With easy credit and favorable tax policies deals proliferated on Wall Street and a crucial
change was made in how they priced services. Instead of hourly-based advisory annual
fees they now priced on a percentage of the deal. As deals proliferated and became bigger
finance capitalists were the first to be comfortable with annual compensation in the $5o
million to $100 million range. With the encouragement of the finance capitalists and
money managers CEOs were then encouraged to participate in the feast with millions of
stock options and increasing compensation from a growing smorgasbord of plans. The
practice of Board Compensation Committee to review the internal logic of compensation
was abandoned for comparison only to a peer group of other overpaid CEOs.
During the 1980s and 1990s everyone seemed to be enjoying enormous wealth. Hidden
was the reality that the big increases in productivity were going to the top 1% and not to
the wage earner. Inequalities of wealth reached record levels. The Business Schools and
financial press adopted this new “shareholder capitalism” as the sought for new mode of
production. Managers who tried to hang on to long-term building plans were derided as
“entrenched management,” and support went to the raiders. Well known people warned
of the developing dangers; Warren Buffett persistently recommended long-term
investment, famous speculator George Soros warned that instabilities in the international
monetary system threatened both the economy and social cohesion; famous M&A
attorney Marty Lipton warned that we were sacrificing long-term growth for short-term
earnings.
A major reason that capitalism was corrupted by ERISA was a lack of control of asset
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inflation. This was not new, however, as the government has never prevented asset
inflation and that has caused every recession including the crash of ’29 and the Great
Depression. The government has fought price inflation vigorously with dedication to
keeping enough people out of work to prevent it.267 This is a policy that favors the
wealthy and that is why it is a priority. A little bit of inflation helps the debtors who repay
with fewer dollars and conversely hurts the creditor class.
Asset inflation in stocks and real estate has done more damage to the people in repetitive
business cycles. They began in the first Washington administration when Alexander
Hamilton made good on his promise to get the wealthy and powerful involved in the new
government by giving them non-democratic privileges, the opportunity to borrow large
amounts of money to speculate. This has been the prime reason that wealth is
concentrated and capitalism functions at a fraction of potential. When Alan Greenspan
was chairman of the FED he testified before Congress that there was nothing the
government could have done to prevent asset inflation in the Bubble Economy. The tools
to prevent asset inflation should be obvious, they include bedsides interest rates, bank
reserves, margin requirements and taxes.. The urgency to control asset inflation and the
tools to do it were presented in a paper in April 2006 by the Central Bankers Club BIS
in Basel, Switzerland, titled “Is Price Stability Enough?” 268 At the same time China is
increasing band reserve requirements to cool their asset inflation.269
ERISA was not the only bad design of government. When Paul Volker became Chairman
of the Fed in 1979 he was peppered by the European Central bankers because of the
extreme price inflation in America a product of Johnson’s “Guns and Butter” program.
Volker conducted a scorched earth policy to control price inflation taking interest rates up
to 20%. He succeeded and at the same time destroyed the S&L industry who were in the
impossible bind of borrowing high cost money short and investing in low returns long.
He also bankrupted several South American countries who were trying to build their
economies. How our bankers got away with floating rate interest loans is another story.
267
Phillips Curve and NAIU pp.
BIS #
269 7.5% to 8.0% in and then to 8.5% in ?
268
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Countries struggling to improve the lives of their people should never get blindsided by
the cost of their loans going up by several multiples.
The damage from Johnson’’ “Guns and Butter” was long and wide spread as will the
damage from the cost of the Iraq war. Without debating the merits of either war should
we not consider a Constitutional Amendment that requires all wars to be self supported
by immediate taxes sufficient to cover the cost of war. Politicians of the Warrior state
know that they can count citizens tend rushing to support their president when he declares
war. It would be better if citizens examined the circumstance more carefully as they
would if taxes were to be increased in that year to pay for the war.
Volker’s scorched earth price inflation fighting destroyed the S&L and then
Congress made it worse. They began with the wrong mission: “save the S&LS” when the
original mission was” low cost mortgages” This is typical of Congress to not even get the
mission straight. The S&L, another case study for students of capitalism and democracy,
is examined in chapter ?
Glossary:
Derivatives:
A value based on an underlying instrument such as stocks or currency. They did not exist
in most forms until 1980 and now $ 4 trillion a day is traded in the world’s electronic
casino. This is about one-half of America’s total commercial activity, GDP, for the whole
year. Former Chairman of the FED lauds them as they add liquidity and provide a
discipline. But who needs more liquidity, we have more than enough and I am not sure
that quickly pulling the value of remote currencies back into their norm has social value.
Carol Loomis of Fortune called them “Alligators in the Swamp” in a 1994 article and her
friend Warren Buffett more recently called them “time bombs” for the holders and for the
economy. As more of your money is now going into hedge funds and derivatives you
should study and decide on the proper relationship of risk and reward.
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Distribution of Surplus:
Companies can use their surplus in four ways: reinvestment in growth, dividends, stock
buybacks, and deals. The first two can have a direct and positive effect on economic
growth and the ultimate retirement savings and for that reason have a social connotation.
Present governance gives full authority to the CEO to decide on distribution. This should
be a matter for full Board attention as it is crucial to both company’s, nations and world
growth
Earnings per share: Total after tax profits divided by the number of shares outstanding.
Profit is not the same as cash surplus as it includes non-cash calculations like
depreciation and amortization. A cut back on investment in new equipment, for example,
could make depreciation greater than expenditures and thus an addition to cash and
surplus.
Hedge funds: At one time an investment opportunity for those who could put in a million
dollars but now becoming a favorite of money managers with your retirement savings.
They are many things to many people but in general they are unregulated investment
pools that tie up money for longer periods of time and provide almost no disclosure. They
are enormously profitable as they charge fees double mutual funds and take 20% of the
profits. Watch this one carefully because of the obvious motivation to maximize profits in
an enterprise with heavy use of derivatives that allow subjective judgment of future
value. Beauty is truly in he eye of the beholder. When Enron “ a hedge fund on top of a
gas line” needed to improve quarterly earnings the traders were asked to “crank the dials”
which meant go back to future estimates of profit and squeeze more out.
Study the LTCM experience in 1998. They were a very successful hedge fund that
claimed that they made money with a “market neutral” approach, that is they bet enough
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on stocks and derivatives going up and down and for the reason were not vulnerable to
the market direction. There is great pressure on hedge funds for performance and as more
get into the act it gets harder to make money on anomalies in currency for example. For
this reason LTCM “went directional” on Russian bonds just in time to get clobbered
when they defaulted.
Ownership
Can vary from full ownership through ESOP plans, to stock purchase through profit
sharing plans, to pension savings. Superior performance requires the coupling of the
financial motivation with the work culture of trust and cooperation .
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Chapter 11
Enlightenment Two
The Integration of Knowledge for Social Progress
The 18th century
Inspired by Isaac Newton’s scientific identification of order in the universe, some of the
budding social scientists of the Enlightenment searched for the best order in human
affairs. Their goal was ininite human progress; the means was more wealth, broadly
distributed, and the prevalence of law—rather than violence—among nations. Voltaire
and the French philosophes emphasized the humanistic aspects, Adam Smith articulated
the economic structure, and Immanuel Kant foresaw the political-ethical agenda.270
Francis Bacon’s experimental method combining reason and empirical verification was
useful to specify the means and validate the ideal. Underlying the effort was a democratic
belief in the worth and potential of each human individual.
Enlightenment thinkers in America, founders of the Republic, aimed at designing a
political structure that would reflect the will and wisdom of educated citizens to displace
the egregious mistakes of the powerful few. The Marquis de Condorcet, a French
revolutionary, integrated Enlightenment knowledge as a social program to benefit
generations to come, predicting that new freedoms would have their best opportunity in
America, “that happy land where freedom had only recently kindled the torch of
genius.”271
Most of the world, however, was not ready to shift to economic common purpose.
George III fumbled his way into the American Revolution; Louis XVI precipitated the
French Revolution and lost his head; Condorcet died in prison during the Reign of Terror.
The forces of business-as-usual continued their self-serving policies of nationalism,
270
271
See Ray Carey, Democratic Capitalism (Indianapolis, Indiana: Author House): 53-62.
Ibid., p. 432, see pp. 62-73.
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imperialism, militarism, mercantilism, and the big mistakes made by hereditary monarchs
and the entrenched oligarchies of the wealthy. The seeds of an enlightened economic
order based on the common welfare of the people had been planted, but the harvest of a
democratic capitalism was far in the future.
The Mid-19th century
John Stuart Mill and Karl Marx confirmed that Smith’s theory that economic freedom
would spread wealth naturally. It had been validated in practice on the small scale, but
they had to point out that the system was functioning at but a fraction of its potential
because wealth was still too concentrated. Each proposed changes in the work culture:
Trust and cooperation would motivate workers to add more wealth, and a fair share of the
results from improved performance would distribute wealth more broadly.272
In two books, Theory of Moral Sentiments and Wealth of Nations, Smith had integrated
the instinct for social cooperation with individual ambition to drive the free-market
system, concluding that “little else is required to carry a state to the highest degree of
opulence from the lowest barbarism but peace, easy taxes, and a tolerable administration
of justice, all the rest being brought about by the natural course of things.”273
Marx, in his great work, Capital, correctly criticized unevolved capitalism, but his
critique of what was wrong is less important than his statement of what is right: Social
progress depends upon development of a superior economic system that is assimilated by
the culture, to be followed by a modification of the political structure in support of that
approach to improved economic life. Because improvement of the human condition
depends on the efficacy of the economic system, it is intellectually myopic and politically
impractical to urge civil, social, and political rights ahead of economic freedom.
Mill (name your favorite writings of Mill, as we do Smith’s and Marx’s) integrated
the energy of participatory workers with the motivations of private property and
competition; he proposed that material benefit is maximized by an improvement in the
272
273
Ibid., pp. 81-89.
Cited in ibid., p. 171.
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quality of life of the workers fortunate to work in a moral environment.274
The intellectual community of the late-19th century did not, however, assimilate this
integration of knowledge for human betterment. Consequently, neither the schools nor
the chuches educated the citizens to integrate growing democracy with the work place,
either to reform the structures at home towards economic freedom or unite in economic
common purpose abroad. The word “capitalism” came into use as a pejorative term
implying wealth and privilege, greed and desrespect for the laboring class. Political
leaders, having been failed by their teachers, continued in the traditional paths of
nationalism, imperialism, mercantilism, militaristism, and the mistaken abuse of power
and wealth.
The 20th Century
The economic genie was, nevertheless, out of the bottle! Throughout the 20th century,
economic freedom continued to confirm its capacity to improve lives in many, many
corporate environments, not only in democratic societies but also in authoritarian
countries, as well. China and India lifted a half-billion people out of extreme poverty in a
decade, and Southeast Asia was not far behind. The collectivist alternatives that were
tried under Communism all failed, and when a Communist country such as China did
begin to achieve success, it was through communistic capitalism. The Marshall Plan after
WW II and, then, the European Union confirmed that economic common purpose could
help to stop the violence. The Information Age made the world more productive, smaller,
and more interdependent. Electronic adavances came to the aid of communication,
education, and human community in the most enlightened burst of democratic technology
since Gutenburg.
The Early 21st Century
Despite this positive trend, early in the 21st century the world was still full of violence,
274
Ibid., p. 49.
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misery, and fear. The root causes had become worse because of a failure of American
leadership. Our “city on a hill” had hidden its Founders’ lamp of liberty under the bushelbasket of fascist militarism that supported, and was supported by, a corporate elite.
Wealth was concentrated in record amounts at home. The economic progress of emerging
nations suffered reversal under the impact of bad advice and worse greed from the
American economic system dominated by finance capitalism.275
After the demise of communism, the world was moving towards economic common
purpose; the global gyro was holding the balance between peace and plenty. America
should have been the natural leader of this extraordinary opportunity; instead, it hardened
into a jingoistic nationalism, a greedy imperialism, and a paranoid militarism as the
power-adoring few committed every kind of egregious mistake in judgment and
performance. The will and wisdom of the people was not sought, only manipulated; the
world’s gyro was gyrating crazily between war and violence. And yet the people could
not find their voice to protest: The intellectual community had never assimilated the
integration of knowledge that could supply an enlightened starting point for economic
and political reform. Consequently, most citizens were helpless before the concentration
of wealth and power at home, and they did not know how to prioritize economic common
purpose abroad in a winning political and commercial foreign policy.
What We Need from Our Universities
Reform of the economic system is the starting point for a better America and a better
world, but it cannot happen without an epiphany in higher education. Our universities
must accept their responsibility to educate citizens in democracy and capitalism, and to
train persons in the media to interpret national and international events in light of the
demands of democratic capitalism so that they may thereby continue educating the voting
public. The failure of higher education to perform this public duty has been documented
by university presidents and deans, among them Derek Bok, president emeritus and
interim president of Harvard University:
275
Ibid., pp. 278-291.
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Through my two decades of presiding over a university, I cannot recall a single
serious faculty discussion of how undergraduate education could do a better job of
preparing students as citizens. The results of that neglect are all too visible.276
Bok subsequently got hundreds of university presidents to endorse this view.
Francis Bacon long ago had cautioned: “It is not possible to run the course right when the
goal itself has not been rightly placed.”277 A Baconian clear sense of the public mission
of academia is now sadly missing, as typified by the opinion of Stanley Fish, dean
emeritus of the University of Chicago, who challenged Bok:
The task of educating students to be better citizens would deform [higher
education by replacing] the true task of academic work: the search for truth and
the dissemination of it through teaching.278
Does the abstract search for truth require a moral anarchy? Do universities have neither
public duty or nor ethical focus? Is not, rather, the failure consistently and scientifically
to apply abstract truth and pure knowledge to appropriate human questions both
academically acceptable and ever theoretical? No professor’s academic freedom has been
violated when he or she is asked to investigate the topic, and then teach freely from her or
his professionally specialized point of view on the question: What is the best way to
organize and conduct human life? Socrates died trying to answer the question. Plato
wrote a book about it. Aristotle surveyed and catalogued all the best answers to it.
Perhaps we can excuse Rawls’s loss of nerve for the noble endeavor of organizing
human affairs rationally as reaction to the failure of alternative political systems.
Perhaps his intellectual fatigue resulted from the failure to perfect society through
his own elite design, and this led Rawls to a false conclusion: “It did not work;
276
Derek Bok, Give me a proper bibliographical entry.
Reference needed—and NOT to a secondary source!
278 Stanley Fish, give me a proper bibliographical entry, The New York Times, etc. Dean Fish,
subsequently a Law professor in Florida, amplified his definition of academic freedom to say that it is the
right to teach anything that a professor may choose, so long as it is not a form of “indoctrination.” Give me
a proper bibliographical entry, The New York Times, July 23, 2006: 13—no indication of a section in
the paper?
277
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ergo, it cannot be done.”
If I were a university professor (which I am not), I would lecture on Smith, Marx,
Mill, and some others to say that the alternative that Rawls was seeking did not
work because it started at the political end of the question, not at the economic
end. The emergence of a better society depends upon the development of a
superior economic system. Those who declare defeat and walk off the field leave
government policy undefended before the predations of two fierce beasts of prey:
namely, the finance capitalists who spend huge amounts to protect their exploitive
system, and the military-industrial complex that sucks up vast sums in its great
march towards nuclear catastrophe. A government thus dominated has neither the
will nor funds enough to effect a betterment of society for the general welfare.
Contra Rawls, I cite Edward Wilson, Professor of Biology at Harvard, winner of
both Nobel and Pulitzer prizes, who wrote scientifically and in the spirit of the
Enlightenment about the unification of knowledge for human betterment:
I believe that the Enlightenment thinkers of the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries got it mostly right the first time. The assumptions they made of
a lawful material world, the intrinsic unity of knowledge, and the potential
of indefinite human progress are the ones we still take most readily to our
hearts.279
Wilson identified the lack of integration in scholarship, along with an underprepared
media, as a serious impediment to the unification of knowledge requisite to the rational
organization of human affairs:
The root cause of the problem: ... the overspecialization of the educated elite.
Public intellectuals, and trailing close behind them the media professionals, have
been trained almost without exception in the social sciences and humanities.
They consider human nature to be their province and have difficulty conceiving
279
Edward O. Wilson, Consilience give me a proper reference
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the relevance of the natural sciences to social behavior and policy.280
One effect of the knowledge explosion of the 20th century is that even the smartest among
us can no longer be “a Renaissance man,” a person who is reputably a master of many
fields. Not only the well-educated but also the hard-working are compelled by
professional necessity to overspecialize in what it takes to be the best at what one does.
Medical doctors, for example, study for long years to become high-paid technicians of
human plumbing, but they do this at the expense of no equivalent learning in the
humanities and social sciences or even in a field as closely allied to their own as, say,
psychology, with a focus on the healing powers of the mind, or even nutrition, the source
of bodily health.
At the opposite extreme, a Journalism major in college learns how to write so as to please
a publisher or editor and to communicate with an 8th-grade readership or viewership, but
people in the media know better than to pitch their writing and news reporting to a level
of higher literacy than that, lest they lose their audience and seem elitist to the general
reading and watching public who are more interested in entertainment than in facts.
When, for example, news reporters are confronted with the latest collapse of some
Southeastern Asian country, it is far easier for them to offer simplistic analyses: blame
religious conflict or indict some authoritarian leader, than it is to dig deeper into the real,
economic causes of the unhappiness, and America’s own complicity in predatory
international finance that abetted yet one more human disaster.
And the list of examples goes on:
Did you ever try to talk to a mathematician?
Theologians speak a language all their own, part Greek, part Latin, mostly nonsense. Can
you get your computer guru to rise above geekdom long enough even to use human
language?
There is so much to know in our world of competing knowledges that the intellectuals
and professors are usually no better off than their confused and unwilling undergrads.
University curricula are specialized and fragmented, and each professor or department
280
Ibid., p. ???.
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chair is zealous to defend his or her intellectual turf in faculty battles over enrollment
levels and grant money. The occupational hazard of having to learn provincially and with
professional exclusivity then results in a failure to integrate knowledge for the better of
the human condition. The humanists and historians listen to mostly to other humanists
and historians; the scientists are the only ones who can understand other scientists; the
psychologists listen to other psychologists, and the sociologists listen to other
sociologists, but they rarely listen to each other; no one listens to the economists because
no one in the other disciplines has ever studied economics enough to be able to
understand an expert in the field, and, besides, economists are boring when they talk.
Intra-disciplinary research teams are much in vogue, but genuine inter-disciplinary
research efforts are rare. When, God forbid, anyone should step outside his or her field of
expertise to attempt to make interdisciplinary meaning and articulate a logical
relationship among disciplines, the opposing overspecialized experts will, as often as not,
ridicule the effort.
Philosophers of physics talk glibly of their TOEs (Theory of
Everything), but hardly any other professional intellectual is ready to address that task
anywhere in between quantum mechanics below or astrophysics above. Most people,
therefore, shyly default before highly complex questions and say, “It’s not my field.” The
search for cohesive, integrated truth about the human condition goes begging. The
respective faculties aggressively and rightly protect their academic freedom, but freedom
from what and for what?
Applying this complaint against over-specialization to problems of democracy and
capitalism, one finds that the universities do not teach an integration of these two allimportant aspects of American and global political-economic life. Most philosophers,
professors of literature, and history teachers speak the word “capitalism” as if it were a
distasteful four-letter epithet—never mind that these same academics are relying heavily
on TIAA-Cref for their retirement packages! Programmatic Liberals on the faculty used
to praise Marx beyond all reason, although this excess has become less fashionable since
“the fall of the Wall,” but in so doing, these same Liberals and their overly idealistic
students, said to be motivated by compassion for the subjugated masses, turned a blind
eye to the hundreds of millions that were murdered in the name of achieving a “classless
society.” Dean Fish may deplore “indoctrination” all he likes, but generations of socially
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sensitive students have been indoctrinated to an anti-capitalist attitude by their professors.
Business majors, by contrast, enthusiastically take the course, “How to become a
millionaire by the time you’re 30,” but courses in Business Ethics are viewed as wimpy
and largely irrelevant.
There is, nevertheless, a way forward that our universities might take. Let us give heed
to Bacon and listen to Wilson. Bacon criticized the scholasticism of his time because it
was artificially intellectual and insufficiently rooted in fact or grounded in an abiding
concern for the human condition:
The primary notions of things which the mind readily and passively imbibes,
stores up and accumulates, are false, confused, and over-hastily abstracted from
the facts ... whence it follows that the entire fabric of human reason which we
employ in the inquisition of nature, is badly put together and built up, like some
magnificent structure without any foundation.281
Following Philosopher Bacon’s advice, let us use our intellects to recover our academic
idealism in the quest for the best possible way to organize and uphold human life. And let
us end the university skirmish in an honorable truce by entertaining Biologist Wilson’s
peace proposal:
There is only one way to unite the great branches of learning and end the
culture wars. It is to view the boundary between the scientific and literary
cultures not as a territorial line but as a broad and mostly unexplored
terrain
awaiting
cooperative
entry
from
both
sides.
The
misunderstandings arise from ignorance of the terrain, not from a
fundamental difference in mentality.282
While the university professors fiddle, the world burns. As we blunder along our wellworn way towards more folly and greater violence and everlasting fear, the reformminded intellectual community has been satisfied with promoting political solutions that
281
282
Proper footnote.
Give me a proper reference.
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do not work well even at home, much less in other societies. Instead, they ought to have
been examining how to refine capitalism and apply the principles of democracy in the
realm of finance not only in America but in other cultures as well. Democratic capitalism
as a concept, an historical development, a functioning system is rarely offered for student
examination, whereas the ultracapitalism that fosters an environment of anxiety and
intimidation, and maximizes short-term profits by suppressing wages and benefits, is ever
before the students’ eyes. The students are not taught the simple and effective ways to
reform and democratize capitalism because their teachers cannot teach what they
themselves have never learned.
Democratic Capitalism and the Integration of Knowledge for Human Betterment
In agreement with Karl Marx, I propose that the starting point for the integration of
knowledge insofar as it touches “the common welfare” (U.S. Constitution) is the
realization that social progress depends upon the development of a superior economic
system. I call broadly upon the professorship for a revision of the curriculum to include
an application of Baconian empircism and the scientific methods employed in the hard
sciences to our truth-seeking processes in politics and economics. Historians on the
faculty must contribute to this multidisciplinary cooperative with a careful study of the
Enlightenment as summarized by Condorcet. Economists and philosophers must engage
in cross-discipline discourse on Smith and Mill and Marx and others to determine
whether and how they were working towards this same integration of knowledge for the
good of all. Philosophers, historians, economists, and geopoliticians must read Kant
together and then discuss ways to reform the United Nations, the World Bank, the
International Monetary Fund, and the other agencies of globalism. Professors from the
School of Business and the Law School must make common cause with their colleagues
in the other faculties to learn what needs reforming and how to reform it, and to learn
how to integrate democracy and capitalism, and, in so doing, how to strengthen both.
Along the way, a number of specific topics will arise that require the collaborative effort
of multdi-disciplinary specialists: For example, students need to study the mistakes made
by the few and the harm caused to the many. Teachers of history, foregin affairs, and
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macroeconomics, then, must engage future voters in a unit of study on Woodrow Wilson
and his ignorance of economic freedom at the 1919 Peace talks that made WW II
inevitable. Following that, the next unit might appropriately be on Herbert Hoover and
his three mistakes in the supply of money, taxes, and tariffs that exported the overdue
stock market Crash of ’29 into the Great Depression.283
Experts in English economic history must educate our students and our fellow voters
about the roots of economic freedom with particular concentration on Smith’s conditions
for economic success. Democratic power will not counteract the lobby power of finance
capitalists until citizens understand, as Smith did, that neutral money means a supply,
cost, and volatility that does not affect the commercial process, and that control of
currency and credit for the general welfare means limits on speculation with borrowed
money. Voters armed with that knowledge would make some changes in Washington by
way of the ballot box.
Professors of the humanities, of religion, and of ethics must grapple with democratic
capitalism as the means to improve the human condition, but they need to collaborate in
this with professors of business, management, and marketing who will be interested in
democratic capitalism because it maximizes profits. Democratic capitalism is, I affirm, an
inherently moral system that can eliminate material scarcity and unite people in economic
common purpose. Does an economic system function better because it is moral? Can the
moral economic system be a model for other elements of the culture? Is it true that
performance improves in every human association when trust and cooperation define the
work environment? The radical theoretical propositions implicit in these questions ought
to be exciting to any philosopher or ethicist. The radical political implications in them
ought to be exciting to any professor of political theory and practice with an eye on
educating the next generation of citizen-voters.
The quest for human values, toegether with the front-loading of acdemic activity with
ethical agendas just itching to be “indoctrinated,” is not so lacking in universities, these
days, as Dean Fish may fantasize. Black Studies, Women’s Studies, Poverty Studies,
283
Carey, op. cit., p. 444.
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Hispanic Studies, Gay Studies, and some others are hotbeds of indoctrination, not to
mention old favorites like Philosophy 101 and Ethics 102. Why not a Department of
Democratic Capitalism Studies!
The discomfort that some academicians sense in “values studies” derives from the war
between science and religion and the chasm between reason and faith—a distinction in
our post-Enlightenment mind as important as the separation of church and state is in the
body politick. A century ago, religious dogma dominated most universities and chapel
attendance was required. Freedom from that kind of indoctrination has been a hardfought revolution. At the same time, the need for human values, and the urgent political,
social, and moral issues demanding our attention with every broadcast of the Evening
News, are more pressing, more complex, and more existentially a matter of life and death
than ever before.
Democratic Capitalism: A Set of Universal Human Values
In the clash of moral opinions, no one set of organized ethical solutions is all-inclusive
enough to answer all of our problems; therefore, our search for values must be as crosscultural and interdisciplinary as our university studies need to be.
What, then, has our experience taught us to do? The great religions of history have taught
us to be kind, generous, and forgiving towards one another, and biologists and
anthropologists tell us that altruism may well be inherent within our species, a
characteristic, indeed, that fits us for survival. We do not have to be told that living in
peace with one another would be better than living at war: We just know it in our genes;
and more than that, we are rational. The Enlightenment taught us to employ reason and
science to specify both the ideal and the means of our humane endeavor. In our global
environnment, even the least-informed isolationist among us now knows—at least in
principle—that “we” cannot be happy while the rest of the world festers in poverty and
disease and misery and violence. Our ideal state, then, is—and must be—one of peace
and prosperity.
Ever to be achieving that state, we need a value system, an econonic system, and an
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educational system that enables us to bridge the secular and the religious, that makes
sense to all disciplines and to all fields of study, that can function in any culture and
within any political structure, that stretches the horizon of the ideal by transforming the
mistakes of history into hope for the future, and that is premissed on an economic system
superior to all the others that have prevailed in history before us.
Democratic capitalism is a set of human values that responds to all of the above.
Democratized capitalism is a way of making a living far superior to the slave economy of
ancient Athens in which Plato and Aristotle lived. Their political-economic environment,
and their privileged status within it, left them with an elitist view towards business and
industry, an elitist view that generations of philosophers and professors have imbibed to
their own harm. A distaste for the world of work and secular productivity that
characterizes much philosophical Idealism and contributes to a breach between soul and
body is unhealthful and unhelpful, and it ought not to be indoctrinated in our children at
school.
Democratic capitalism is also far superior to the wage-slavery imposed on the working
classes by the oligarchies of history, from the royals to the robber barons, from
mercantilists to ultracapitalists, those finance capitalists whose business is making money
on money, and who treat employees as dispensable, cost-saving devices that can be
downsized as a means of upping stock prices.
Democratic capitalism is an inherently moral economic system that works best when the
work environment is one of trust and cooperation. The inexorable pressure of competition
on companies and countries forces people to work together. The Information
Revolution—the new Industiral Revolution—in which we now function, requires that
workers be educated, self-reliant, intelligently responsive, and collaborative. Businesses
that fail to foster these characteristics among the staff will tend to fail, but businesses that
do not treat their people honorably, that do not include educated and intelligent people in
planning and guidance of the enterprize, that do not fairly and generous share the wealth
with self-reliant and cooperative associates, will lose those people to other, more
democratically capitalistic—and therefore more competitive—corporations.
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Democratic capitalism is an an economic system that has demonstrated its capacity to
improve lives, to elevate masses of poor people into the middle class, and—given the
chance—to function adequately even under authoritarian regimes. And now that so many
others have rubbed the lamp of that democratic-capitalist genie, young people living in
even totalitarian countries can view the good life on TV and communicate about
freedoms via the internet; in time, their natural yearing for liberty will motivate them to
change their governments to allow the peace and prosperity that others have to flourish in
their own countries.
The demonstrated historical process is this: When people begin to work and earn in a way
that is free, whether they yet enjoy full social, civil, and political rights or not, they
thereby achieve an ever greater measure of their human potential. They begin to demand
a greater field of play, more room to work, more freedoms in which to live their lives. As
the people are thus uplifted by the success of their economic activity, authoritarian
governments either eventually fall before the in-coming tide of freedom or float gradually
upwards on that tide to allow greater economic freedoms, then greater political freedom,
and then full civil and social rights. Economic freedom works best with full democratic
freedoms, but even without them, it still works.
Democratic capitalism’s greatest enemies are also great impediments to social progress:
the concentration of wealth, perennial violence among nations and peoples, and
privileges enjoyed by the few at the expense of the many. This axis of interrelated evils
can be eliminated but only through understanding gained by way of integrated knowledge
and by integrating the power of democracy and the energy of capitalism when they run in
tandem.
I propose, therefore, “Enlightenment Two,” a multi-disciplinary project of intellectual
inquiry and international citizen education designed to reform our economic systems, to
build and distribute wealth more broadly, to reform domestic governance and foreign
policy so that they will support and protect the superior economic system of democratic
capitalism both at home and around the world. I believe that this endeavor will lead to
global economic common purpose, that it will give trust and cooperation a chance, and
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that the ever-widening achievement of this goal will do more than any other single thing
to end wars, abate violence, and relieve fear. As the world’s standard of living goes up,
the violence will go down.
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